NJPW G1 Climax 29 Night 10: Moxley and Naito finally clash

Night 10 of the NJPW G1 Climax 29 tournament was at Aichi Prefectural Gym in Aichi this Sunday and featured the next round of B-Block matches, including IWGP US champion Jon Moxley taking on Tetsuya Naito in a wild brawl.

Ren Narita def. Yuya Uemura

I can’t think of another time in my life when I was so stoked to watch two rookies go at it. Whether it’s Shota Umino, Yota Tsuji or the two young guns in this match, they’re consistently excellent without reinventing the wheel. The style Narita and Uemura wrestled on Night 10 had more in common with Inoki’s vision of NJPW more so than Gedo’s modern landscape.

Nothing I could write here would be as interesting as the way these two wrestled, the intensity with never a moment wasted. Every action, however minimal, has impact and means something. Every hold, every strike — everything.

Sunday’s opener between these two was quick, and Narita scored the pin after a bridging front suplex on Uemura in only a few minutes. Uemura slammed his hands on the mat in anger before heading to the back afterwards.

Sidenote: After all this time, I’ve finally realized that the current Young Lions entrance theme is just a sterilized diet GarageBand version of Motley Crue’s “Kickstart My Heart”.

Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro Takahashi (w/ Pieter) & Chase Owens defeated Tomoaki Honma, Toa Henare & Kota Ibushi

This was a match. It wasn’t much different from any of the other Bullet Club tags this summer.

Honma teased a kokeshi from the top but Takahashi knocked him from the ropes until Ibushi broke the nearfall. Takahashi did the Pimp Juice DDT on Honma for the pin. I have no idea why Honma is still taking DDTs after his nearly-career-ending neck injury from one of Jado’s DDTs. The Bullet Club dudes all posed in front of Pieter’s 90 percent naked rear-end after the match.

Lance Archer, Minoru Suzuki, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Zack Sabre Jr. defeated Kazuchika Okada, Will Ospreay, YOSHI-HASHI & Shota Umino

Suzuki took a swipe at the Japanese announce team while Archer menaced Rocky Romero on English commentary before getting in the ring. When Okada came out and posed on the ropes for the crowd Archer stood behind, stared him down and talked some trash. Whomever was directing the show stayed on these two for a while in the shot and let both wrestlers tell a short story since they’ll face each other on Tuesday in A-Block action.

Brits Ospreay and Sabre were in for their teams first and the crowd was audibly intrigued. They had a terrific World-of-Sport-on-speed style exchange of holds that ultimately ended in a stalemate. Those two have such a special chemistry between each other. They’ll also square off on Tuesday in Kagawa.

Minoru Suzuki abused YOSHI-HASHI next. The match quickly spilled out onto the floor from here and Suzuki even built a fort out of guardrails and chairs for YOSHI. In the ring, Okada and Archer gave the crowd a preview of their coming bout. When Archer went for the EBD Claw he countered it with a dropkick and tagged out to the fiery “Shooter,” Mr. Umino.

Suzuki quickly caught him in a guillotine choke when he was on the top rope. Moments later Umino was out on his back after Kanemaru spiked him with a Deep Impact diving DDT. Archer cut a promo on the English announce team’s mics as Suzuki continued bullying Milano Collection A.T. at the Japanese broadcast booth. I’d only check this out if you’re interested in a preview of Tuesday’s A-Block matches.

EVIL, SANADA & BUSHI defeated KENTA, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Karl Fredricks

Tanahashi and EVIL belly-bumped before they got started. They’ll also have a match this Tuesday. The Aichi crowd was again wild for Tanahashi, giving him his typical rock star treatment. EVIL got the better of Tanahashi for a good portion of the beginning of this. From what I saw of their exchanges I anticipate a very good but not great match from them this week.

SANADA and KENTA teased their match this Tuesday as well, but their time together in this match was a little bit short. Fredericks was really explosive here, though he was pinned just a few minutes later after eating an MX from BUSHI.

B Block: Hirooki Goto (4) def. Toru Yano (4)

This was over in under a minute. Yano went to shake his faction-mate’s hand beforehand but the new Dark ’n’ Gritty Goto refused. Yano tried starting a “CHAOS” chant. When New Goto posed for the fans on the ropes, Yano took his T-shirt and wrapped it over Goto’s face and tried a school boy.

Yano ripped the ring post pad off and whipped Goto into it and tried another school boy for two. Yano distracted the referee and went for a low blow back-kick but Goto caught it and wrapped him in an Indian Deathlock-type double-ankle lock with step-over pin to pick up the victory.

B Block: Juice Robinson (6) vs. Tomohiro Ishii (6)

They started off at a fast pace. Robinson towered over Ishii and it made for a great visual. This was pure no-nonsense Juice, and on Sunday he had a match that more closely resembled his bout with Jon Moxley back in June; it was a bar fight then and on this night.

They traded hard chops, head-butts, elbows and fists. At one point Robinson went for a top-rope Frankensteiner but Ishii blocked it and Robinson landed on his knees, which allowed for Ishii to land a flying knee-drop across Robinson’s neck. YOSHI-HASHI, who was on commentary, confirmed that he’d never seen Ishii use that move before.

Ishii did the Tenryu punch-and-chop sequence in the corner, but later Robinson hit his own running cannonball in the opposite corner on a prone Ishii. They no-sold big power moves at around the 10-minute mark, a superplex from Robinson, a perfect-looking powerslam from Ishii, a number of throws from both.

This continued to build and build to higher peaks toward the end and it was strike for strike, move for move. Robinson used a falling power bomb for a two-count. They went another few minutes beating the tar out of each other, and later Robinson used a Jackhammer for a close two. He went for Pulp Friction but Ishii reversed it into a release tiger suplex. From here he unloaded a Sliding D lariat and a vertical drop brainbuster to pin Juice and pick up two more points.

B Block: Jeff Cobb (4) def. Taichi (w/ Miho Abe) (4)

This only really got good until towards the end. Taichi had Takashi Iizuka’s Iron Claw with him for this match. He put his hand out for Cobb to shake a twice during the opening part of this match. They shook at first but on Taichi’s second attempt Cobb refused; he wasn’t interested in funny business.

Taichi then called over to Miho Abe and insisted Cobb shake her hand, or possibly consult with her about something regarding Taichi’s character but alas, and of course, it was all a ruse. Taichi ambushed Cobb and threw him to the floor. He used Abe as a human shield and distraction so he could sneak in a whack of his mic stand to the unaware Cobb.

Back in the ring Taichi continued working over Cobb, degrading him with arrogant soccer kicks. Cobb returned the offense later with a flurry of punches in the corner. He used a deadlift suplex that sounded to impress the crowd. Taichi came back with a gamengiri kick to Cobb’s face.

Cobb did a rolling gut wrench suplex but Taichi countered with a high roundhouse kick. Cobb retuned with a jumping piledriver. He tried doing a Last Ride into a back suplex but it there was a slight botch. Taichi reversed the Tour of the Islands into an inside package for a two-count.

After Cobb shoved referee Red Shoes out of the way, Taichi went for a low blow but Cobb countered it with a punch, landed a standing moonsault and finishing Taichi off with a big Tour of the Islands for the win. This had a hot ending but the majority of this was lukewarm.

B Block: Jay White (w/ Gedo) def. Shingo Takagi

This was very good. White rolled to the floor after the bell rung. Takagi wasn’t interested in any of White’s nonsense and posed cross-legged in the ring to counter-taunt Jay. He then opened the ropes and invited White back in, which White did for a second until he rolled back out of the ring.

Takagi took the bait and followed him out to the floor where White went after him with ferocity against the guardrail. Takagi quickly recovered and used a barrage of shoulder blocks and a short lariat. He teased a Death Valley Bomb on the apron but Gedo grabbed his ankle and once again White found quick way to counter and regain the upper-hand.

White and Red Shoes exhibited a nice passive-aggressive disdain for each other in this match. White would continually shout “Don’t start this s–t again” whenever RS would ever question the legitimacy of his holds, like a headlock that RS seemed to see as a choke. It’s a less on-the-nose version of Kento Miyahara and Kohei Wada’s relationship in All Japan Pro Wrestling.

They traded hard chops that sound like flesh exploding flesh. Takagi went for the top rope Tenryu elbow but White rolled to the opposite corner where he’d lead Takagi into taking a single-arm suplex, launching him directly into the corner, then used a twisting suplex for a two-count. The crowd would grow louder and louder in support of Takagi.

Later they traded high-velocity back suplexes. Takagi kicked out of a Kiwi Crusher, which I don’t recall seeing pulled off in this year’s tournament yet. They went back at it trading hard elbows until Takagi went for a Pumping Bomber but White collapsed; the crowd booed. Takagi landed a nice wheelbarrow suplex for two. At around 15 minutes in they struggled over leverage, back to back, until Takagi landed his Inverted Gory Bomb.

The Pumping Bomber Takagi used on White in this match was pure decapitation. At one point, Takagi lifted Jay over his shoulder but White was able to grab Red Shoes and break his way out of the hold. As he feigned exhaustion, Gedo snuck into the ring with brass knuckles but Takagi threw a hard jabbed that sent Gedo back to the floor. White then ran at Takagi and attempted a Bladerunner that Takagi countered and was able to stick a big version of Made in Japan for a two-and-three-quarters count.

White later found his way out from under Takagi’s dominant final sequence by using two sleeper suplexes, a cross-arm brainbuster and a Bladerunner to seal the match shut. Jay and Gedo went over to the English announce booth and talked trash.

B Block: Jon Moxley def. Tetsuya Naito

Moxley came out through the crowd with Shota Umino. When Naito came out he kept acting goofy in an attempt to get under Moxley’s skin, which worked. Moxley shouted and hopped up and down looked beyond annoyed. Naito continued messing with him, fanning himself as he slowly, slowly took off his maroon count’s cape and leisure suit. Just as he finished, he whipped his white pants at Mox and the match kicked off.

It was a hockey fight from just before the bell, fists flying. Naito threw Moxley out of the ring and teased a dive but did the Tranquilo pose instead. He rolled to the outside to to have some Tranquilo time which continued angering Moxley. Mox even offered Naito a free shot, then simply laid flat on his back in the middle of the ring, waiting for Naito to cut the tiresome stalling act.

Naito would keep rolling in and out of the ring. He ran into the ring when Moxley chased him to the floor and he mirrored Moxley, lying on his back. It’s speculation but I feel that this kind of mischievous character is especially appealing to young kids, especially young boys, which might be why you see so many young kids holding Naito teddy bears in the crowd.

They brawled to the floor. Moxley apologized to Red Shoes for brawling outside and he eventually threw Naito back in. Mox did his own teasing of Naito later on and did a few of the Tranquilo poses that for some reason looked really awkward and, for that reason, funny to me.

Moxley slammed Naito with a Rock Bottom. On the floor, Naito DDT’d Mox onto an unfolded orange chair, then did his version of the Muto Tokyo Dome running lariat, but here we had Naito doing the “Aichi Running Dropkick While Moxley Sat Prone on a Chair” legdrop.

In the ring, Naito spat right into Mox’s face. Moxley’s selling of everything in this match was really entertaining. The crowd felt hotter from here and in loud support of Naito, though there were definitely moments where pockets of the crowd where chanting Moxley’s name. He landed a big double-arm superplex for a nearfall midway into the match.

They traded elbows and punches. Moxley grabbed Naito by the head and bit him. Naito almost murdered himself on a top rope Frankensteiner, looking to land on top of his head instead of flat on his face/stomach. Mox threw a hard lariat and later a headlock driver for two. They started biting each other in an unspoken ode to Tyson–Holyfield 1997.

The two went through a rapid and smooth exchange that wrapped with Dirty Deeds for a really hot two-count, the crowd peaking louder than any other time in the match, but only seconds later Mox spiked the neck-hating Naito with the Death Rider to win the match. Moxley and Kazuchika Okada are both now undefeated in the G1, both with 10 points.

Moxley cut a promo after the match and said that Naito was “muy, muy loco.” He then thanked the Nagoya crowd and basically said that this was the time to start taking him seriously in NJPW and that if there were still any doubters that now was their last chance to hop on the Mox bandwagon. He also said he had a message to every opponent and obstacles in his life. He said we won’t be denied and won’t lose — general sports rhetoric but delivered at such a high level. He’s a pro. It was concise and the crowd could catch the gist easily. Very good brawl with an exciting finish.

There was a quick post-match promo backstage with Moxley and Shota Umino where Mox insisted that Umino do all of the speaking while he flipped the double-bird. “Jon Moxley will be (the) winner of G1 29,” was Umino’s line.

Moxley: “I couldn’t have said it any better myself. He’s a real panty-dropper, ain’t he?”

We’ll be back with more G1 Climax 29 coverage from Takamatsu this Tuesday.

Current G1 Standings

A Block

Kazuchika Okada 10

KENTA 8

EVIL 6

Hiroshi Tanahashi 6

Lance Archer 4

Kota Ibushi 4

Will Ospreay 4

SANADA 2

Bad Luck Fale 2

Zack Sabre Jr. 2

B Block

Jon Moxley 10

Juice Robinson 6

Tomohiro Ishii 6

Shingo Takagi 4

Toru Yano 4

Taichi 4

Tetsuya Naito 4

Hirooki Goto 4

Jeff Cobb 4

Jay White 2