Clips of Michael Elgin vs. Bad Luck Fale and Togi Makabe vs. Hangman Page are shown to start the show.
1. G1 Climax – Block A: YOSHI-HASHI vs. Jay White
JIP. Not sure what to say. Jay White is still figuring himself out and YOSHI-HASHI never really has.
2. G1 Climax – Block A: Hiroshi Tanahshi vs. EVIL
This is a super basic match with an excellent dynamic, EVIL’s football player who went goth vs. Tanahshi’s all around legendary good guy. This match is 50% arm work, baby. And every basic thing EVIL does has extra credibility because it’s on Tanahashi, the great babyface, the guy who was touted as the next KEIJI MUTO and actually lived up to it. Not sure about him using ref comedy as a hope spot though. Either way, this goes exactly the time it needs to, and the finis is hot without overstaying its welcome. EVIL gets some big near falls, they counter some stuff (the crowd FLIPS for a Dragon suplex tease), Tana wins, and the crowd celebrates. ***1/2
3. G1 Climax – Block A: Kazuchika Okada vs. Minoru Suzuki
Man, I don’t know. These guys have excellent chemistry. An amazing dynamic. I love the style. Love the credibility. But unlike pretty much all their other matches, I just didn’t lock in. The work was good, but I didn’t fully buy it until maybe the last quarter or so. Okada in crisis mode is a weird deal – he has his usual good match but there’s not that EXTRA that Okada matches usually have, that built-in credibility and drama that took his great matches and made them classics.
It’s a good match, but after their epic IWGP Heavyweight Title match and G1 Climax draw and the match in the rain, it just felt like it was lacking something, and didn’t really add anything to their rivalry. I still liked it though! And there is an amazing Gotch-style tombstone by Okada towards the end. ***1/2
