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NJPW G1 Climax 25 Finals results: Full video highlights

By Cody Williams

Credit: Trask (Twitter)
Credit: Trask (Twitter) /
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A look at the results and the highlights from New Japan Pro Wrestling’s G1 Climax 25 Finals

New Japan Pro Wrestling held the finale to one of it’s biggest events of the year on Sunday, the G1 Climax. The G1 Climax 25 Finals were held in Tokyo, Japan on Sunday afternoon (or the wee hours of Sunday morning in the United States). However, there was much more to unpack than just Final for the G1 tournament.

Two of NJPW’s biggest titles were on the line at the Finals show. Meanwhile, some of Ring of Honor’s key players were on the card, as were the Bullet Club and the rest of New Japan’s biggest stars. It was undeniably a show to remember.

With nine matches on the car, let’s dive right into the action and find out who the victors were throughout the event and who emerged as the winner of the G1 Climax 25 tournament.

The card began with Jushin “Thunder” Liger, Yohei Komatsu and Sho Tanaka vs. Rysuke Taguchi, Mascara Dorada and David Finlay. The match was short-lived, but not without a nasty sliding dropkick from Liger:

And not without some vicious dropkicks delivered from Tanaka:

However, the dropkicks weren’t enough to get the victory as the team of Taguchi, Mascara Dorada, and Finlay gained the victory with Taguchi scoring the pin.

Winners: Rysuke Taguchi, Mascara Dorada, and David Finlay

Next on the card was another six-man tag team match, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima and Captain New Japan vs. Yuji Nagata, Manabu Nakanishi and Jay White. This was another match that was over quickly, highlighted by the TenKoji Cutter being hit to perfection:

That gave their team the edge and led to White tapping out to Tenzan’s Anaconda Vice.

Winners: Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima and Captain New Japan

Yoshi-Hashi vs. Michael Elgin took the stage for singles action after the two six-man tags, with Elgin dominating much of the match and almost all of the highlights. Yes, Yoshi-Hashi got in a wicked reverse DDT:

However, Elgin’s power was unmatched. He landed an incredible Deadlift Falcon Arrow:

Elgin ultimately ended things, though, with a couple of big powerbombs:

Winner: Michael Elgin

It was back to the tag matches after that, with CHAOS (Kazushi Sakuraba, Tomohiro Ishii and Toru Yano) vs. Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro Takahashi and Tama Tonga). This one was a ton of fun, with a bit of everything. This spot ending with a Tonga dropkick warranted a few laughs:

And a smooth Fisherman Buster landed by Takahashi was another strong look for Bullet Club:

However, Ishii’s power was too much for the maligned Bullet Club, particularly a devastating lariat on Tonga:

The brainbuster that followed was the deciding factor with Ishii scoring the pin.

Winners: Toru Yano, Tomohiro Ishii and Kazushi Sakuraba

Another tag affair took over the ring next, pitting Tetsuya Naito, Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma vs. Kota Ibushi, Hirooki Goto and Katsuyori Shibata. This match had some great action, including some strong offense from Honma:

However, the core of the match was the furthering of the feud between Naito and Shibata. Naito was the perfect heel in this match, not having a care in the world no matter how much damage he took. In the midst of that, Ibushi pinned Honma after a Phoenix Splash:

However, Shibata didn’t stop throwing hard kicks to Naito. When he was finally pulled off, Naito still couldn’t have cared any less:

Whenever these two have their blow-off, count me in.

Winners: Kota Ibushi, Hirooki Goto and Katsuyori Shibata

Right before intermission, the legendary Genichiro Tenryu came to the ring. After promos from Tenryu, Gedo, and IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada, it was decided that Tenryu would face Okada in the Tenry’s retirement match on November 15:

Once intermission was over, the top of the card was ready to roll.

The Young Bucks were defending their IWGP Junior Tag Team Championships against reDRagon. As you might expect with two of the best tag teams in wrestling involved, this was a match full of quality in-ring work. In fact, the best way to recap this match is just to show all of the insane action that went down:

That last Chasing The Dragon was enough to put away The Young Bucks and crown new IGWP Jr. Tag Team Champions.

Winners: reDRagon (New Champions)

KUSHIDA vs. Richochet for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship was up next in another match that was full of insane spots. Once again, it’s best just to catch them all at once:

After all this at a torrid pace in this match, KUSHIDA locked in the Hoverboard submission and forced Ricochet to tap out:

Winner: KUSHIDA (Retains Championship)

Before getting to the main event, it was Bullet Club (A.J. Styles, Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows) vs. Kazuchika Okada and The Kingdom (Michael Bennett and Matt Taven w/ Maria Kanellis). Though there was nice work elsewhere, this clearly was only to further build the rivalry between Okada and Styles. That was apparent early when Okada was “too sweet” for Styles:

The highlight outside of Styles and Okada was Styles and Anderson being distracted by a dancing Maria. Gallows had to come in and break their trance:

Back to action, Okada and Styles traded big moves at the matches end. Okada hit a nasty reverse neckbreaker:

And also hit a Tombstone:

However, it was a Styles Clash that was the deciding factor in the end:

Winners: Bullet Club

The main event was up next with Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi. With two of the best in the business also having familiarity on their side, this was a classic meeting for the G1 crown.

The match was booked with a slow rise to a resounding crescendo and it worked beautifully. The two spent several minutes just feeling one another out and expressing their experience in the ring with one another. Then came the big blows, which are once again best shown in bulk:

After kicking out of one another’s finishers and getting predictably stiff with on another down the stretch, Tanahashi pulled out all of the stops:

One more High Fly Flow from Tanahashi did the trick after that:

That’s right; Hiroshi Tanahashi is the winner of the 25th G1 Climax:

Nakamura even shook the winner’s hand after the classic meeting:

Winner: Hiroshi Tanahashi

And that was the show from Tokyo on Sunday. What did you think of the match of the night? Do you think Nakamura should have come out on top? Let us know what you thought of the G1 Finals in the comments.

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