The biggest tournament of the year rolls into the world-famous Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan tonight/early tomorrow for night two of the NJPW G1 Climax.
Night two features the first set of matches from the B-Block, headlined by NEVER Openweight Champion Katsuyori Shibata and Tomoaki Honma in a rematch from their recent, excellent Kizuna Road match, and their 2014 G1 Climax match which was one of the best bouts of the tournament. Plus we’ve got four other tournament matches and four undercard tag team matches featuring all ten of the A-Block stars.
In a possible move to get people interested heading into four straight nights of G1 shows, New Japan World is offering this entire show for free at this link.
MANABU NAKANISHI, SATOSHI KOJIMA & HIROYOSHI TENZAN vs. CAPTAIN NEW JAPAN, DAVID FINLAY & JUICE ROBINSON
Short opener there to keep building support for Tenzan and his last G1. Finlay and Robinson did basic rookie heel stuff, attacking Kojima during his shtick and Finlay doing the Tenzan Mongolian chops, etc. Nakanishi countered a brainbuster attempt by Juice and actually hit a top rope crossbody to a pretty good pop. Captain of course took the pin, after the Ten-Koji Cutter and Western Lariat from Kojima. Not a lot going on here, but the crowd was into the Tencozy spots. Winners: Nakanishi, Kojima & Tenzan.
NAOMICHI MARUFUJI, HIROOKI GOTO & TOMOHIRO ISHII vs. BULLET CLUB (YUJIRO TAKAHASHI, TAMA TONGA & BAD LUCK FALE)
Another short multi-tag, but again the crowd was into a lot of the individual acts going on here and it came together pretty well. Marufuji took a lot of beatings throughout and had great comeback heat at the end, and pinned Takahashi with Sliced Bread #2. His kicks are just on another level. Fale looked like a beast here as they teased Ishii trying to suplex him throughout, and their spots got a great reaction, and ultimately it took both Ishii and Goto to take him down. Everyone looked good here, with Marufuji, Tama Tonga and Fale really shining. Winners: Marufuji, Goto & Ishii.
RYUSUKE TAGUCHI, KUSHIDA & HIROSHI TANAHASHI vs. TIGER MASK, JUSHIN LIGER & TOGI MAKABE
This was a lot of fun and had a little bit of everything in it. Tanahashi and Liger opted to start against each other which got a big pop, and had several nice sequences until Taguchi broke up a surfboard stretch and got heat from the crowd for it. Team Liger took turns beating up Taguchi which nobody seemed to mind. Makabe shook off everything even took a Slingblade from Tanahashi before laying him out with two King Kong lariats. KUSHIDA and Tiger Mask were saved until the end, and broke into a pretty exciting Juniors match while the other four brawled on the outside. Tiger Mask hit a Tiger Driver but it wasn’t enough and KUSHIDA put him away with a bridge in a really fun, varied tag match. Winners: Taguchi, KUSHIDA & Tanahashi.
GEDO & KAZUCHIKA OKADA vs. BUSHI & SANADA
So in the same week that Sanada pulled out a shocking upset over Tanahashi in a great match to kick off the G1, he now has a technical victory over the IWGP Champion. It was BUSHI that pinned Gedo with a Codebreaker, but he did so as Sanada had Okada in the Skull End; either way an incredible start to the tournament for a guy who was floundering around TNA not that long ago. The crowd has been into this show since the start and the tournament matches haven’t even begun yet. Winners: BUSHI & SANADA.
TORU YANO (0) vs. KATSUHIKO NAKAJIMA (0)
Yano threw a bottle of water and Nakajima right away and fought dirty from there, throwing him around the ring with his shirt and even tying him to the barricade so he barely made the 20-count early on. Once they got through Yano’s comedy spots, Nakajima made very short work of him and picked up his first win with a brainbuster. Winner: Nakajima (2)
YOSHI-HASHI (0) vs. KENNY OMEGA (0)
Omega came out and said that he hated the G1 schedule and he hated the tournament. Great back-and-forth match that started slower and built to a great pace later on with four different big nearfall spots for YOSHI-HASHI before the final pin, that had the crowd going crazy. Earlier on Omega darted HASHI into the barricade and pulled the floor mats on top of him, and then blind double foot stomped him from the top and almost had it via count-out. HASHI built his comeback after Omega dominated the mid-match and hit a swanton and a roll-up for a nearfall, then countered the One-Winged Angel into a DDT and second swanton for an even closer nearfall. He hit a Boma-Ye and the announcers were popping for that, then busted out a brand new move just for the G1 – what looked like a pumphandle falcon arrow – for the actual pin. Great match. HASHI did the Nakamura hand gestures after the match. Winner: YOSHI-HASHI (2).
MICHAEL ELGIN (0) vs. EVIL (0)
Great, hard-hitting match. Seemed like the crowd might have finally quieted down a bit for this one at first, but with all the big moves and stiff lariats and nearfalls it was a fever pitch by the end. These were two guys roughly the same size with similar strengths and kits, who were both in ROH doing totally separate things just a year ago, and they really brought it all out and just lit each other up with everything they could. Elgin even did his own High Fly Flow off the top. EVIL hit a dragon suplex and the STO to put him away to carry on an apparent theme of upsets in the early rounds of this tournament, pinning the Intercontinental Champion. Winner: EVIL (2)
YUJI NAGATA (0) vs. TETSUYA NAITO (0)
This was a slow, methodical match with a story told completely by their characters and the total lack of respect shown to the captain of the Third Generation stars by Naito, a tactic which ultimately came back to haunt him. Naito targeted his knee very early, dropkicking it into the barricade, and worked it over for several minutes including a lengthy Figure Four spot. Naito got comfortable and started mocking Nagata and not taking him seriously, but because of the knee it didn’t matter when he’d mount comebacks – until it finally did. Nagata turned the tides catching him in an armbar and from there beat him down with suplex and throw after suplex and throw, caught him with a spin kick and dropped him on his neck with a backdrop for the surprise pin. Winner: Nagata (2)
KATSUYORI SHIBATA (0) vs. TOMOAKI HONMA (0)
These two just fought last month at Kizuna Road for the NEVER title and that excellent match ended with Shibata throwing Honma out of the ring at the end; he got a measure of revenge right away, going on the attack and spilling Shibata into the fans with a strong lariat over the barricade. This was back and forth the entire time. Shibata was weakening him down with submissions and Honma was just beating the hell out of him. There was no Honma missing a dozen headbutts here; just one big move to the next, and actually Honma hit almost all (if not all) of his headbutts and actually won the match with a diving headbutt from the top rope. Winner: Honma (2)
After the show Honma gave Shibata his receipt from Kizuna Road and threw him out of the ring. He closed out the night by saying Shibata got lucky last time and his win was a fluke, but the war between them isn’t over yet. He makes all the fans stand up and says it’s only over when you give up, and he won’t give up no matter what. Honma does his “Kokeshi is happy / we’ll all be happy” bit and thanks the fans for their support and sends everyone home.
