Two finalists most people could’ve anticipated headlined a show that ended with two things that no one could’ve anticipated. Welcome to Budokan and the G1 Climax 31 finals.
You can find HWL’s night-by-night recaps of G1 Climax 31 at this link, as well as a more consolidated deal here: If You’re Happy and You Know It, Clap Your Hands: The Best Matches & Wrestlers of G1 CLIMAX 31.
“What you want I can never be…”
1. Yoshinobu Kanemaru & El Desperado vs. Ryohei Oiwa & Kosei Fujita
Not ready to declare that Oiwa or Fujita have a “great dropkick” or something just yet, but many quality stomps were dished out here by all parties in a match that was slightly less perky than last night’s opener but still delivered some quality young lion beatings. **
2. Yuji Nagata & Toru Yano vs. Great O-Khan & Jeff Cobb
Can Great O-Khan provide the right ingredients to make an undercard tag feel as fresh as he did the G1 block matches? Uhhhh no, not really. Seems like Cobb/Nagata may be a direction, or at least they worked pretty well together. The match ended setting up an O-Khan/Yano direction too, which – ah. Right. **
3. Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI vs. EVIL, Yujiro Takahashi & SHO
This felt like an abbreviated version of what will eventually be a half-hour main event at Korakuen Hall for the 6-Man Tag Titles, and CHAOS’ batting average says that match might be good but I just want to embrace this abbreviated one because Dick Togo’s House of Torture may “sound” awesome but it isn’t. ***
4. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma & Tiger Mask IV vs. KENTA, Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa & Chase Owens
Tanahashi’s Sekigun crew, packed with memories and thoughts of “huh – they’re still at it,” went 4-on-4 with the House of Torture’s estranged cousins the Bullet Club 2.0 B-Team Club. Tiger Mask took a little beating and most everyone got their thing or two in before a couple concerning future programs for U.S. Champion Tanahashi got kicked off. Sidenote: Makabe’s ribs were taped up and it made me ask, “Why?” **
5. Exhibition Match: Katsuyori Shibata vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
Excuse me? The sorrow of monotone crowd claps turned to the nostalgic buzz of a crowd emoting as after apparently retiring 5 years ago The Wrestler returned to the ring and he actually freaking wrestled. He wrestled Zack Sabre too, a natural opponent and one of the G1’s top performers.
In just 5 minutes of continuous exhibition grappling, Shibata and ZSJ casually reminded everyone that some guys just do this better. The crowd’s revulsion to ZSJ trying to snap Shibata’s leg felt like a lot better approach than elbows and headbutts everywhere too, and the beat on the Cobra Twist at the bell was terrific. More pleeaase…
6. Shingo Takagi, SANADA, Hiromu Takahashi & BUSHI vs. Satoshi Kojima, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Ryusuke Taguchi & Master Wato
The 8-man tag is the 8-man tag, but all these boys can go. Hiromu Takahashi and Ryusuke Taguchi have got to be all jazzed up for Best of the Super Juniors too, kicking this off with hijinks and rope-running that was realistically more compelling than half the G1. ***1/4
7. G1 Climax – Final: Kazuchika Okada vs. Kota Ibushi
Though the circumstances did not appear ideal at first, the Rainmaker and Golden Star used the building blocks of a classic tournament final to weave a tale that felt like a modern classic and charming throwback at—-
Wait, what happened? He broke his arm or something? 20-something minutes into the finals of the G1 Climax tournament, Kota Ibushi’s arm broke and the match had to end?
The G1 Climax Final over the last decade has managed an impressive balance between insane spectacular highspots and serious big match atmosphere, though the trade off was maybe a little meat on the bone. Are they doing all this STUFF to win the G1, or doing it because it’s just what you do now?
It’s not that Ibushi can’t execute a beautiful dropkick or land spectacularly on his head, or that Okada can’t transition from a tombstone piledriver to a Money Clip with inhuman precision. Nor is it that either guy still can’t provide seamless shifts in momentum that build the match to a grand finale crescendo. But even if they were going to go bigger than ever on dramatic displays of human possibility for another 20 minutes, it was still kind of going to be held back by a paint-by-numbers beginning. Also Ibushi broke his arm and the match had to end.
I swear as soon as his arm first bent in an unexplainable direction off a DDT on the floor, Ibushi thought in a flash that nobody even noticed — but for a guy who returned just a month ago from another ailment, trying a full New Japan finish for another 5 minutes is one of the odder things one could try to do. Good thing I only offer thoughts and not reviews. ***1/2
Happy Thoughts: Points for Shibata and hard work in the tags but for an enterprise going through the motions, New Japan absolutely went ahead here and setup Okada/Tama, O-Khan/Yano, and Tana/KENTA or Chase Owens as the next destination. A freak accident isn’t something to get hot about and, like — the G1 still had at a minimum 20 matches better than most matches that will be wrestled in many places this year. But it was a bummer ending to a G1 I’m honestly shocked I stayed with all the way through. 2.0 / 4.0
