NJPW G1 CLIMAX 27, 8/6/17 (Day 15)
Act City Hamamatsu
This is the second to last day of Block A matches and there is still so much undecided with 6 of the entrants still in the mix at this point. Let’s go!
G1 Climax – Block A: Yuji Nagata [0] vs. Zack Sabre Jr. [8]
Nagata is probably the one wrestler in Block A whose style works the best with Zack and they really deliver here as expected. Nagata is hell-bent on ripping Sabre’s shoulder off his body as he busts out the Nagata Lock II and III here and focuses the majority of his kicks and holds on Zack’s arm/shoulder. Love the kick exchanges and love all of Zach’s mannerisms and the little things he does in the ring. While Nagata is struggling to get the ropes, Zack does everything he can to keep Nagata from getting a rope break, pulling his arm back as he reached out and twisting it back, even Despy shoving Nagata’s leg back into the ring. Nagata was relentless though, and gets his first victory of the tournament with a Backdrop hold. ***1/2
G1 Climax – Block A: Kota Ibushi [8] vs. YOSHI-HASHI [4]
YOSHI just isn’t that believable to me in the ring. I don’t know what it is but watching him is just a little boring sometimes and this is one of those times. Much of what I want to say has been said already. I don’t know if it is his mannerisms or the way he controls a match or a combination of both but yeah. This wasn’t terrible but I just couldn’t get into it as much as I would have liked to, especially in the parts where YOSHI controlled. Ibushi is just great though. His kicks are INTENSE and he’s getting PISSED that everyone is kicking out of the Golden Star Powerbomb lately, so he just crushes them with the Kamigoye knee strike instead. I mentioned after his match with Naito that they established his finisher… well now they have established a deadly combination. **3/4
G1 Climax – Block A: Hirooki Goto [8] vs. Bad Luck Fale [8]
Speaking of YOSHI-HASHI, the fact that he can pull a really good match out of Fale, but Goto can’t, is a shame. I’m sure Goto CAN. But he doesn’t here. He doesn’t at all. This did get kinda fun towards the end tough and I will give it that. **1/2
G1 Climax – Block A: Tetsuya Naito [10] vs. Togi Makabe [6]
The majority of the beginning of this match is spent outside the ring battling in the crowd. Back in the ring we get some hard-hitting exchanges, the highlight being a Spider German from Makabe that gets the crowd pumped up. Naito hits a few Destinos and this thing is over. Not much here but it was solid throughout. Basically a going through the motions match for Naito as he heads towards the final stretch of the tournament. ***
G1 Climax – Block A: Hiroshi Tanahashi [10] vs. Tomohiro Ishii [8]
This was an awesome match. Tanahashi started out trying to match Ishii’s stiff style but once he realized Ishii was out-stiffing him, he resorted to dropkicking Ishii’s knee out and going to work. Ishii would continue to punish Tanahashi throughout the match with stiff strikes and power moves and his selling was ON POINT. The little things that piss me off about Ishii sometimes were non-existent here and I loved it. Even the top-rope brainbuster which got teased earlier on in the match, was used PERFECTLY here and I actually marked out a bit for it. He did hit a brainbuster of the not avalanche-style early in the match, but after the top-rope variation Tanahashi would then avoid any further brainbusters from Ishii, knowing the general formula that once Ishii hits another one it’s basically lights out. I am making a big deal about this because IT MATTERS. To me at least. They told a great story here and worked the crowd tremendously with their pacing and building of the match. Tanahashi’s Dragon screw takedowns were devastating, some to the point where my own damn knee started hurting just watching it. While Tanahashi ditched matching Ishii’s game, Ishii had to ditch his own gameplan somewhat and give some brutal Dragon screws right back to Tanahashi as he began working Tana’s leg and it was beautiful. Tanahashi didn’t see it coming and it added another layer to this match and really got the crowd thinking that Ishii would take Tanahashi down. The closing stretch of the match was great, as they exchanged power moves and near falls and then go all-out fighting spirit mode to the finish. Tanahashi takes the victory with the High Fly Flow and DAMN I loved this. ****1/4
Standings
Hiroshi Tanahashi [12]
Tetsuya Naito [12]
Bad Luck Fale [10] x
Kota Ibushi [10] x
Tomohiro Ishii [8] x
Zack Sabre Jr. [8] x
Hirooki Goto [8] x
Togi Makabe [6] x
YOSHI-HASHI [4] x
Yuji Nagata [2] x
It comes down to Tanahashi vs. Naito on 8/11.
Final Thoughts: Tanahashi/Ishii was a fantastic main event and one of the better matches of the tournament so far. Top 5 up until this point. DEFINITELY worth checking out along with Nagata/Sabre. Solid show overall as we enter the home stretch.
Twitter: @ ligersama
