Togi Makabe vs. Bad Luck Fale – G1 Climax (Block A)
Aw man, I was weirdly into the idea of Makabe and Fale having themselves a beefy hoss-fight. And they did for a while – lots of manly lariat collisions and lots Makabe pointing right at Fale before charging at him, because that’s just what you do when you’re about to put the hurt on someone. But then the Tanga Loa shenanigans came in and everything got sidetracked. It is so bizarre that a giant monster like Fale needs all this outside interference to win matches. Dude should be booked as Big Van Vader but instead he’s booked as Horace Hogan or some shit. **1/4
Jay White vs. Hangman Page – G1 Climax (Block A)
This was very much a tale of two matches. The first half was a rock-solid, fundamentally-sound wrestling match that went a long way to make up for the clusterfuck these two had in Long Beach. The NJPW USA match felt like a soul-less, desperate head-drop fest with both guys failing to get any kind of reaction from the crowd. This one had a clear story and a super efficient heel/face dynamic with Jay destroying Page’s back and Hangman bringing the selling and crowd-popping high spots.
The crowd immediately got both characters and were reacting accordingly. They did a lot of smart build-up around the Adam’s Apple and Page got a big pop when he finally hit it. Sadly, all of that quality work was wasted on an overly long ending stretch with ridiculously drawn out ref bump soap opera bullshit. If this G1 Climax has shown us anything, it’s that Jay White gets it now. He knows how to get his character over and is getting a lot better at structuring matches. And I can’t wait to see him work without the burden of these overcooked, anticlimactic finishes. ***1/4
EVIL vs. Minoru Suzuki – G1 Climax (Block A)
The EVIL/MiSu pairing feels like the bad guy from a kids’ cartoon getting thrown face to face with the actual Devil. It’s fun stuff, is what I’m saying. There was some quality brawling outside the ring, Minoru just pulverizing EVIL with chairs, and I gotta say I’m starting to feel bad for all of these random tech guys that have to give up their chair so Suzuki can have his fun. WHERE WILL THEY SIT!? This match also made me realize that EVIL’s selling is almost approaching Ospreay levels now. Dude is just screaming in agony for every single thing. At the same time, it’s a logical approach to selling when Minoru Suzuki is beating the shit out of you.
EVIL brought the fight too – this thing had an epic forearm battle where Minoru made the mother of all ‘’I WILL END YOUR LIFE’’ faces. The ending stretch was completely wild: both guys seamlessly chaining counters between their finishers until Minoru got the announce team to lose their god damn mind by bringing back the classic REVERSE DROP INTO SLEEPER, which he hadn’t done in a while. Some good wrestling right here. ***1/2
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. YOSHI-HASHI – G1 Climax (Block A)
The early feeling out stuff here was a bit alarming, to say the least. Both guys working in slow motion, an awkward skin-the-cat spot, chinlocks. Just the most lifeless shit. But the action picked up when Tana got pissed off at YOSHI for DARING to bruise his Greek God chest with a couple of stiff chops. The rest of the match was a fun little back and forth, but it lacked the story of Taco’s match with Okada or the direction of the usual Big Tanahashi Match.
It was mostly YOSHI getting all of his 2004 ROH spots in, with Tana trying to make him look good by selling a lot. YOSHI has a new move that looks like instant death: some kind of Fisherman’s Jackhammer bomb thing. So of course he’s been using it for regular near-falls for two matches now, rather than building it as a proper finish. This guy. Loved Tana countering the Butterfly lock with a rollup for the finish, the rest was a YOSHI-HASHI match. ***
Kazuchika Okada vs. Michael Elgin – G1 Climax (Block A)
Okada’s legendary arrogance getting the best of him is a common theme in a lot of his big singles matches, and it was used to great effect in this one against finishing move enthusiast Michael Elgin. The whole opening bit with Okada goofing off and making fake muscle poses at Elgin only to get swiftly outwrestled both introduced the story perfectly and confirmed Okada’s status as an underrated comedy genius.
The crowd has been weirdly dead for this entire show, so the entire mid-portion of the match with Elgin reeling from Okada’s floor DDT felt really flat due to the lack of heat, BUT I was once again blown away by Lil Kazu’s selling whenever Big Mike got in any offense. The guy was selling chops for 5 minutes straight and acted like his legs were broken when he got his knees up to counter Elgin’s slingshot splash.
Things got really fun for the last 5 minutes and the crowd finally woke up. The ending stretch came off as Classic Okada and made the best use of Elgin’s big bombs of any match of the G1 so far. I’m liking the addition of the discus lariat to Midlife Crisis Okada’s arsenal. Feels right at home alongside the red hair and balloons. Too bad about the early lack of heat, because the match would’ve probably blown the roof off Korakuen. ***3/4
