NJPW G1 CLIMAX 27, 7/26/17 (Day 7)

NJPW G1 CLIMAX 27, 7/26/17 (Day 7)
Sendai Sun Plaza Hall

Watching LIVE~!

G1 Climax – Block A: Tomohiro Ishii [2] vs. YOSHI-HASHI [2]
YOSHI starts throwing elbows and Ishii looks at him like he’s some kind of idiot before showing him what real elbows feel like. YOSHI does try to go toe to toe with Ishii in a chop exchange but naturally he loses that. This ends up being a chop war for the better part of the first 6 or 7 minutes. YOSHI pushes Ishii’s head down and lands a bunch of kicks and that pisses Ishii off even more so he starts pounding YOSHI in the corner with headbutts and elbows. YOSHI pops right back up and gives it right back to Ishii. He lands some kicks and a facebuster as we get our first wrestling move and our first near fall of the bout. Ishii lands the top rope brainbuster for a two count as he continues to try and punish YOSHI. Ishii lands a German suplex and goes for a lariat but YOSHI ducks and lands a lariat of his own. He heads to the top for the SWANTON BOMBU and a near fall. YOSHI is working here, even though this has generally been a chop war he looks better than he did against ZSJ and Naito when controlling the match. He applies the Butterfly Lock but Ishii gets the ropes. Ishii blocks the Karma but YOSHI hits a neckbreaker and a double knee strike for another near fall. Ishii hits a desperation DDT. YOSHI kicks out of a powerbomb and intercepts Ishii’s lariat attempt off the ropes with one of his own. They go toe to toe with chops and headbutts and Ishii of course is going to win that exchange with a nasty headbutt. BRAINBUSTAAAAAAA. 1, 2, 3. This was a WAR. YOSHI did his best to hang in there with Ishii but he took a damn beating. Ishii can work, man. I HATE that top rope brainbuster but I don’t think it took much away from this match like it normally does for me. YOSHI’s best performance of the G1 so far. ***1/2

G1 Climax – Block A: Zack Sabre Jr. [4] vs. Bad Luck Fale [4]
If Zack is gonna make anyone submit to an armbar in under a minute, it’s probably not going to be Fale. He tries his damn hardest though but Fale moves this match to the outside, punishing Zack up against the ring post and the guardrail. Fale continues his domination inside the ring. Zack tries to take down Fale a few times but the man is just too large. He finds an opening to land some kicks that take Fale to the mat but he’s in rough shape so can’t immediately capitalize. He is able to get the manjigatame applied as he bends Fale’s hand back and extends his arm but Fale is too strong and the hold doesn’t last long. Zack doesn’t give up and hangs on with a sleeper hold until Fale backs up into the turnbuckle to break the hold. Zack rolls Fale over into a double heel hold but Fale is just too damn large and he gets the ropes easily. Zack gets the triangle hold applied but Fale lifts him up off the mat, but Zack uses his leverage to roll Fale over for a quick pin! The match was laid out about as expected, with Sabre unable to use his submissions on the big man and ending up having to sneak a victory.  **1/2

G1 Climax – Block A: Togi Makabe [2] vs. Kota Ibushi [4]
Ibushi has adapted to whatever style he’s had to so far this tournament and this seems to be no different as he takes Makabe to the outside and dominates him at his own game. They tease a double count-out but get back to the ring. Ibushi controls for the most part until Makabe drops Ibushi with a lariat. Ibushi would repay Ishii with a stiff kick to the face shortly after before the two collide a few times and Ibushi finally takes Makabe to the mat with a lariat. They go to the top rope and Ibushi SLAPS Makabe right across the chest before hitting a hurricanrana for a near fall. He kicks Makabe while he’s down and Makabe asks for more. So he gets more. But he hits a lariat that sends Ibushi flying. Back to the top rope we go, teasing the piledriver from the Naito match. Makabe tosses Ibushi off and hits a knee drop RIGHT IN IBUSHI’S DAMN FACE. A powerbomb gets a near fall and Makabe heads back to the top rope for a stiff King Kong Knee Drop and the victory. Makabe just isn’t doing it for me lately. Nothing he does is glaringly bad but he’s just been pretty unimpressive and boring to watch. Aside from two devastating knee drops there wasn’t much here from Makabe. Ibushi looked great as usual but this match as whole didn’t do much for me. **3/4

G1 Climax – Block A: Tetsuya Naito [4] vs. Yuji Nagata [0]
An awesome counter exchange to start ends with Naito ducking a kick and posing on the mat. The match builds slowly, each guy getting in some offense and its fun back and forth action. Naito hits a swinging DDT. He spits in Nagata’s face and Nagata isn’t taking that shit so he starts firing off LOUD kicks and slaps Naito while he’s down. They get up and go blow for blow, Nagata getting the best of Naito and taking him down to the mat, mounting, and landing several elbows to the face. Naito ends up giving it right back, slapping Nagata across the face but Nagata hits a German suplex and Exploder. Nagata is putting a beating on Naito. They get into a slap exchange and Nagata is like HOW DARE YOU SLAP ME! so he just starts beating the crap out of Naito and his damn mouth is now BLEEDING. Naito goes down and Nagata applies the cross armbreaker. He pulls back hard and Naito gets to the ropes. Nagata attempts to work over the arm of Naito but Naito reverses and goes for another swinging DDT but Nagata counters and Naito ends up hitting the DESTINO for a damn close two count. After a bit of a struggle he hits ANOTHER Destino to get the victory. Nagata is BRINGING IT in his final G1 tournament at damn near 50 years old. He is surpassing expectations and it’s great to see. He didn’t take any shit here and went as far as he could with Naito, throwing the badassery right back to him to show him who the boss REALLY is. That first Destino kick-out was incredible and teased the possibility that this thing was going longer or that Nagata might actually pull it off. ***1/2

G1 Climax – Block A: Hiroshi Tanahashi [4] vs. Hirooki Goto [4]
Tanahashi played the heel so great in his match with Nagata yesterday but the crowd is going hard for him at the start of this match. Goto ROCKS Tanahashi off the top rope with a lariat to the outside and this thing is getting going now. Goto with an armbar on Tanahashi’s bad arm, bending back the hand and twisting the shit out of it is great. It’s almost like he took notes from Zack’s match on night one. He works over that arm for as long as Tanahashi allows it which isn’t too long because Tana knows he’s done for if he doesn’t turn this thing around. He takes Goto down with a Dragon screw. He lands some punches with his good arm and a flying forearm. Tanahashi throws some offense at Goto when he can but it’s never sustained because Goto comes back right away and puts Tanahashi on the mat or focuses the bad arm. A great exchange where Goto drops Tanahashi with a knee, Tanahashi gets up and kicks Goto’s leg out, hitting a German and Goto rolling through to hit a backdrop suplex. Fighting spirit, baby! They exchange elbows in the middle of the ring which probably isn’t the smartest idea for Tanahashi. Goto lifts Tana up but Tanahashi counters with a Sling Blade and goes to the top, attempting the High Fly Flow but Goto rolls out of the way. He hits a lariat off the ropes and then kicks Tanahashi square in the chest for a near fall. A neckbreaker gets another near fall and Goto goes for the GTR but Tanahashi slips out of it. Another GTR attempt and Tanahashi counters with a neck screw takedown. Tanahashi digs deep, reversing a suplex attempt and landing some takedowns and then a suplex for a near fall. He takes down Goto again with the Sling Blade and goes off the top for a body block and then pops right back up for the High Fly Flow and gets the victory. Maybe I’m expecting more or maybe the crowd just isn’t as hot as I’d expect it to be, but that takes away from a match for me. There wasn’t anything inherently wrong with this match and Tanahashi put on a good performance although seemed pretty slow in the ring. The finish seemed a bit abrupt for a main event caliber match. Goto’s focus on Tanahashi’s arm didn’t play much into the end of the match at all either and that was a good start to build the match from. Overall I got into Tana/Nagata much more even through the glaring no-selling by Nagata (a match I’ll be revisiting soon). ***1/4

Standings after 7 days:

Final Thoughts: Pretty solid show with the only disappointment being Ibushi/Makabe only because I expected another high level match. MOTN is a toss-up between Ishii/YOSHI and Naito/Nagata. This was YOSHI’s most fluid work to date in the tournament. Tanahashi/Goto was good but I was expecting a bit more from them in a G1 main event. I don’t want to sound like I’m being too critical of these matches but the tournament has been great so far. I will be doing a write up soon on how I rate matches and what exactly I look for. Ratings are subjective, but I usually throw my thoughts along with the match so it isn’t just a meaningless rating.