NJPW G1 CLIMAX 27, 7/25/17 (Day 6)
Big Palette Fukushima
This has the makings of a great show. Let’s go.
G1 Climax – Block B: Michael Elgin [0] vs. Satoshi Kojima [0]
Someone’s picking up a win here. They both stand strong at the start until Kojima takes the upper hand to get the crowd going a bit and after a little back and forth, Kojima hits his spots for the first near fall. Elgin throws some nasty elbows in this and he mocks Kojima’s thousand chops in the corner but instead of tossing Kojima down and yelling Kojima’s “ICHAUZO BAKAYARO!” he gives the crowd the F-OFF. Kojima gets his payback with a DDT on the ring apron. He goes for a plancha but Elgin avoids it and POWERBOMBS Koji off the ring apron. Tenzan pleads for Kojima to get up and it looks like he may get counted out, falling off the ring on the 16 count, but makes it back in time and we still have a match. They exchange Stan Hansen-like lariats and Koji doesn’t look very happy, but Elgin DROPS Koji and covers for a near fall. Kojima hits a desperation Koji cutter. Elgin with a powerbomb and then the turnbuckle powerbomb and it looks like this one may be over but Kojima drops Elgin with a lariat before he can hit the Elgin Bomb. We go to the top rope and Elgin flips over Kojima and powerbombs him down to the mat, hits the Elgin Bomb, and gets his first victory of the tournament and I’m pretty sure his first singles victory of the year. This was a solid match. Nothing out of the ordinary for both guys but a nice clash of similar styles. **3/4
G1 Climax – Block B: EVIL [2] vs. Tama Tonga [2]
Tonga has not impressed me thus far and I really want him to. He asks EVIL “You wanna go outside?” EVIL nods, and the two head outside the ring, fighting through the crowd for a while until EVIL nearly gets counted out. This did get pretty decent towards the end though with a lot of back and forth and EVIL gets the win. Gotta be honest, this kinda lost me and I really stopped paying attention until the good exchanges started happening. NR.
G1 Climax – Block B: Minoru Suzuki [2] vs. Juice Robinson [2]
I am REALLY looking forward to this match after the interaction between Suzuki and Juice during the multi-tag from 7/24. Juice actually made Minoru’s chest BLEED during a lengthy chop exchange and that pissed Minoru off so he beat the living hell out of Juice’s leg and there’s no doubt that will carry over here. YUP. Before Juice can even be introduced Suzuki goes on the attack. The Japanese announcer even says “AWW, SHIT!” El Desperado even tries to join in but Juice tosses him away. Juice is one of my MVPs of the tournament so far. His work overall has been really good and he hasn’t had a bad performance. He makes everything believable and can take a damn beating like no one else. Suzuki terrorizes the leg, even ripping a piece of guardrail off and throwing it down on top of him. Don’t FUCK with this man. He launches chairs into Juice’s knee and I’m sitting here in pain just watching it. Minoru is INSISTENT on ending this in a bad way, continuously bringing the match outside and using everything he sees to fuck Juice up. He tangles Juices leg around the guardrail and bashes it with another chair. Back in the ring they go toe to toe and Juice does his best to hang in there, exchanging chops and fists with Minoru until he lands a spinebuster to buy himself some time to recover. The Juice sells that leg through every single thing he does, even attempting a suplex and as he raises Suzuki realizes he can’t complete the move. Minoru takes him down with a dragon screw and a heel hold, standing up and falling back down, extending the leg and putting Juice in a tough spot. He crawls towards the ropes and Minoru stands up, pulls him back in an ankle lock, and falls back down to the mat. Finally Juice gets to the ropes and Minoru walks over and starts slapping him across the face. They exchange more strikes and Minoru tells Juice IT’S OVER. IT’S OVER. Juice tries to land the Pulp Friction a few times but Minoru counters until Juice lands a straight fist to the face. Minoru gives it right back and goes for the Sleeper, but decides to just end this thing with a PILEDRIVER after holding Juice upright for a few seconds. This was a beatdown in every sense of the word and I loved every second of it. I was really hoping they would turn this into something GREAT but realistically it was just a drawn out one-sided squash and I am OK with that if done right as this was. Juice continues to put on performance after performance and Suzuki is still a major threat. ***1/4
G1 Climax – Block B: Toru Yano [2] vs. Kenny Omega [4]
UPSET WATCH. Toru hands Kenny his DVD and Kenny attempts to throw it into the crowd a few times. Yano says NO!! PLEASE OPEN!! So Kenny opens it and Toru smacks it from the bottom, covering Kenny’s face with white powder and I’m laughing my ass off. Kenny can’t see a damn thing and Toru gets a few nut shots and near falls in. He unties EVERY turnbuckle and Kenny looks around once he can finally see like WTF IS GOING ON. They tease a few turnbuckle throws until Kenny launches himself into one by accident. They play around Toru’s hair pulling spot for a while. Toru tapes Kenny’s legs together using nearly an entire roll of tape and then pulls him outside the ring. Kenny hops around and finds the tape, and tapes Toru’s legs together too. They hop around and do some really funny exchanges, Kenny even landing a Dragon suplex before cutting himself loose and hitting a V-Trigger. Toru gets a roll up that nearly gets a 3 count and the match ends with Yano being counted out because he can’t get back in the ring with his legs taped together. ****1/2 for the comedy~! NR.
G1 Climax – Block B: Kazuchika Okada [4] vs. SANADA [2]
The match begins building and SANADA leaps from the top rope, Okada dodging, and SANADA landing on his feet but he immediately clutches his knee and rolls around the ring in severe pain. Okada looks on as SANADA attempts to stand and finally does. He knocks Okada to the mat and points at his head having outsmarted the champion. Jesus I really thought something freakish had happened. SANADA now has the upper hand. He controls most of the match, Okada getting in a bit of offense but never really able to sustain anything. SANADA’s work is OKAY but fairly flat as the match builds slowly. Okada hits a reverse neckbreaker and the match begins to turn around. After an elbow drop we get the Rainmaker pose but he is unable to land it, SANADA hitting a dropkick and the crowd is HEATING UP. A backdrop from SANADA gets a near fall as the crowd goes from 0-60 real quick. SANADA moonsaults over Okada and tries to apply the Skull End but Okada counters twice before getting dropped with a dropkick and TKO for a near fall. SANADA to the top rope and Okada rolls away from a moonsault. He lifts SANADA up for the piledriver but SANADA again attempts the Skull End, using the top rope for leverage. Okada pulls him down and lands a piledriver. SANADA ducks the Rainmaker and avoids another piledriver, hitting one of his own and dropping Okada to the mat with the Skull End finally. Okada STRUGGLES through, finally getting to the ropes. SANADA heads to the top hitting a moonsault and attempting another Skull End but Okada FIGHTS IT, rolling over as SANADA drops to the mat, lifting SANADA up and RAINMAKAAAAAA. Still clutching SANADA’s wrist he stands and hits another Rainmaker. RAINMAKA POSE. He lifts SANADA up again, SANADA DUCKS and goes for the TKO but Okada counters with a German suplex and RAINMAKAAAAA and this thing is over. The exchanges here were really good, built around SANADA’s Skull End and Okada’s piledriver and Rainmaker. This didn’t reach the heights that I was expecting but in a tournament like this we aren’t going to get MOTYC level matches every single night or these guys will be burnt out halfway through. The build here was slow and the portion that SANADA controlled was relatively flat, but the exchanges at the end of the match and the overall story here was pretty damn good and I am excited for future encounters between these two. This didn’t TOUCH Okada’s match with Elgin though. ***1/2
Final Thoughts: Pretty solid show with the only skippable match being EVIL/Tonga although the end was pretty fun. Juice’s performance, again, stood out for me and even the comedy match was very enjoyable. While not at the level I was expecting, Okada/SANADA was really good.
