Day 15 of the NJPW G1 Climax 29 tournament was at the Hamamatsu Arena for its midweek show in Shizuoka, Japan and featured the next round of A-Block matches, including a dramatic main event between EVIL and IWGP World Heavyweight champion Kazuchika Okada.
Minoru Suzuki, Taichi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru defeated Toru Yano, Yota Tsuji & Yuya Uemura
The “Suzuki Nation” theme song is such a step down from “Kaze Ni Nare” it’s not even funny. The Young Lions hopped in the ring and sort of got in Suzuki-gun’s face before they were jumped. On the floor, Taichi slammed Yano into the English broadcast table and forced him to say something in English on the microphone, pure torture. They’ll have a G1 B Block match on Thursday in Yokohama. Kanemaru tapped Uemura with a Boston crab to win the match for his team, and Taichi wrapped Yano in the apron sheet like a fresh piece of norimaki and left the referee and ring staff to release him from the deadly apron wrap.
Hirooki Goto and YOSHI-HASHI def. Jon Moxley and Shota Umino
Moxley entered through the audience with Umino behind him, Umino carrying the IWGP US belt over his shoulder. Goto and Mox were in the match together first and teased their B Block bout the next day. They traded hard elbows until Moxley threw Goto to the mat by his hair.
YOSHI-HASHI got a small but positive reaction when he tagged in. He laid into Umino for a while and later tapped the rookie with a butterfly lock.
Jay White, Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens def. Juice Robinson, Tomoaki Honma and Toa Henare
Honma and Takahashi in first but the story was built around White and Robinson and their bad blood stemming back from a summer ago. There were a couple of teases of that throughout this before Owens landed a package piledriver on Henare to pick up the win for his team.
Tetsuya Naito, Shingo Takagi & BUSHI def. Tomohiro Ishii, Jeff Cobb & Ren Narita
We got a taste of Thursday’s B Block match between Ishii and Takagi at the top of this one and it was what you could imagine. They exchanged hard strikes until Takagi bowled Ishii over with a high-impact shoulder block. The rest of LIJ took to the floor and brawled with the others around the ring. They acted like heels in the ring but were treated like babyfaces by the crowd. They were happy to see Naito although he didn’t do all that much in this match.
We got a slight tease of him and Cobb tomorrow in Yokohama. Cobb did a standing moonsault (he also had a braided ponytail in this match). He got a huge reaction when he did a double back suplex to BUSHI and Naito, one Ingobernable in each arm. Speaking of BUSHI, he won the match for his team after landing the MX on Narita a few minutes later. Ishii and Takagi faced off and started shoving each other after the bell.
A Block: SANADA (8) def. Lance Archer (4)
Like Jeff Cobb, Archer came to the ring with his hair braided in a long ponytail. Someone must have been having fun backstage. He went after SANADA as he walked out to the ring, took off his bejeweled skull mask and tried it on. In the ring SANADA quickly countered the sneak attack with a dragon screw legwhip and a frankensteiner. Archer answered with a running somersault senton to the floor off the apron. He decked one of the Young Lions on the floor before he got back in the ring to work SANADA over some more.
Most crowds around Japan this summer have been crazy for SANADA and it wasn’t any different at Hamamatsu Arena. He received his first heavy chants as Archer dominated midway through this. Archer hit a huge Black Hole Slam. I can’t think of a time when Archer was faster than he is than now. Watching him run the ropes or from corner to corner, it’s impressive to see; he’s not clumsy and can keep up with a super-athlete like SANADA. At one point he chokeslammed SANADA high over his head and to the mat for a two-count, and from here the crowd started chanting for SANADA again.
Later both missed moonsaults. Archer was able to sink in the EBD Claw but SANADA grabbed the ropes for a break, safe. Archer went for the Black Out but SANADA reversed it into the Skull End, which Archer then reversed, and after SANADA dodged a Pounce attempt from Archer he used an O’Connor Roll with a bridge to steal the win from Archer’s. This was great, and both looked exceptional.
A Block: Bad Luck Fale (w/ Chase Owens and Jado) (6) def. Hiroshi Tanahashi (8)
Fale ambushed Tanahashi as he posed on the ropes before the bell. This pattern has become stale. Jado cracked him in the back with a kendo stick when referee Marty Asami was distracted by Fale. At this point in the tournament I find this kind of match difficult to watch, though the Shizuoka crowd was into it, or rather they just really wanted to get behind Tanahashi because that is how popular he is. Side note: Tanahashi has fresh magenta highlights.
Tanahashi finally took Fale down with a dragon screw leg whip and then went for a Texas Cloverleaf but had a hard time turning Fale onto his stomach. Tana gave up on the idea and reverse dragon screwed his way out of it and instead locked on a figure four over Fale’s knee. Fale reversed the hold and both tumbled to the bottom rope for a double break.
Tana went for a sunset flip but Fale sat on him for a two-count. Moments later this crowd was getting loud for Tanahashi and chanting his name, and I suppose from all of the crowd’s love and energy he was able to pull out a Twist-and-Shout and a sling blade followed by a High Fly Flow to Fale while he was face down.
When Tanahashi went for the kill, Owens distracted Asami and Jado hit Tana with the kendo stick. Fale then hit a Grenade on Tanahashi, then went for the Bad Luck Fall but Tana wouldn’t go up, so he settled on a backslide pin which … won the match? It felt like a surprise ending and relatively clean one for Fale. The match itself was okay and probably Fale’s best of the entire tournament.
A Block: Will Ospreay (6) def. KENTA (8)
KENTA was different tonight. He got into Ospreay’s face inside the ring before they started. Once the bell rang they stomped on the gas and went through a fast series of strikes and counters that ended with them knocking each other over with a double kick.
KENTA almost ripped Ospreay’s head off with a swinging DDT-stun gun-type move off the second ropes, KENTA floating over the top to the apron here. These two were not hesitating at all, especially KENTA, who looked to be whipping Ospreay into the guardrails as hard as he could around the ring. He body slammed Ospreay in the aisle past the front rows on the part of the floor without a mat.
The next bit of this in the ring consisted mainly of KENTA abusing Ospreay with a menu of hard kicks and submission locks focused around Ospreay’s neck and shoulder area. Ospreay rallied back with a stunner counter out of a suplex. The crowd really began getting behind Ospreay right here and kicked into another chant for him.
KENTA missed a diving double stomp and Ospreay returned with Pip Pip, Cheerio. They moved to the apron and KENTA slammed Ospreay with a Falcon Arrow on the edge of the surface, which Ospreay solid until the 19 and 3/4 count.
After sticking the Shibata low dropkick in the corner, KENTA took to the top rope and landed a diving double stomp but couldn’t score a full three count. He went for Go 2 Sleep but Ospreay fought his way out of it. KENTA cut Ospreay’s comeback off quickly with a busaiku knee. They traded elbow shots on their knees, then open palm strikes on their feet.
KENTA slipped out of Ospreay’s grasp when he was going for a power bomb and some of this part looked like they slipped or someone lost their grip but it was negligible because the crowd was losing it after this. Ospreay then went for a shooting star press but KENTA blocked it and put Ospreay into Game Over until Ospreay grabbed the bottom rope to break the hold. KENTA bounced off both ropes and destroyed Ospreay with another busaiku knee, the crowd almost dead silent.
He went for Go 2 Sleep but Ospreay fought his way out of it and landed an Os-Cutter out of nowhere to wake this crowd up. The Ospreay chants turned up again and were sharper. He went for Stormbreaker but landed a hook kick on KENTA instead, then decapitated him with a Hidden Blade elbow, and finally a clean Stormbreaker for the emphatic win. Excellent match. KENTA looked like a monster and Ospreay the hero.
A Block: Kota Ibushi (10) def. Zack Sabre Jr. (6)
This was very good. It was hold-for-hold style at the top of this with Ibushi opting to play Sabre’s game up front. They’d make contact and grapple to a stalemate and break, repeat a few times. Sabre told a fan to shut up in one interval. When Sabre went to sneak in a low kick after a rope break Ibushi checked it and counted with a middle kick of his own that stunned Sabre for a few moments, until he found his footing, or Ibushi’s, really, and locked in a single leg crab followed by a straight ankle lock until Red Shoes broke the hold.
Sabre was arrogant and stiff with his soccer ball kicks; Ibushi absorbed everything and kept returning any offense Sabre threw at him. He did a moonsault knee drop for a two. Sabre reversed a Last Ride into an achilles lock, then transitioned to an STF and next a Regal Stretch variation. Transitioning quickly between submissions is more realistic and believable than sitting in a hold and squeezing for dear life until the opponent taps, something that only seems to happen in pro wrestling.
Ibushi landed a half-nelson suplex and the Last Ride for two before going for a Kamigoe; Sabre reversed it into an electric chair submission, and then moved to a calf slicer variation, Ibushi’s legs splitting like a wishbone until he grabbed the rope for a break.
Ibushi ate a ton of hard kicks from Sabre but he no-sold them. He went for a boma-ye at 100 mph but crashed knee-first into the corner; from here Sabre rolled him into a few crucifix pin attempts but couldn’t keep Ibushi’s shoulders down. Fifteen minutes had just passed when Ibushi blasted ZSJ with a running knee strike and finally Kamigoe for a three-count.
A Block: Kazuchika Okada (14) def. EVIL (8)
EVIL beat Okada two years ago in G1 Climax 27. It’s of note because it was a rare loss for a sitting IWGP champion, which adds another layer of drama to the match.
They moved at a medium pace in the beginning of this. People were mostly screaming their heads off for Okada but EVIL definitely had pockets of fans cheering him on all over Hamamatsu Arena. There wasn’t much flashy about the wrestling in this match, say, compared to Ibushi vs. Sabre in the match just before. Both EVIL and Okada are great examples of wrestlers who have dramatic, modern matches using mostly conventional wrestling moves.
There was some back and forth into the middle part of this match but it was mainly dominated by EVIL who worked over Okada’s head and neck. This worked well for later when EVIL jumped and curb stomped Okada’s head near the bottom rope onto the mat.
EVIL called for a lariat but Okada countered with a flapjack. He later landed a diving elbow drop from the top rope; next, cue the Rainmaker pose. On the floor Okada went to do that spot where he runs and does a cross body over the guardrail but EVIL threw a chair at his face and cut that off. Then he Pillmanized Okada’s head.
EVIL was in charge for another few moments but Okada was able to break through EVIL’s line of attack with a sudden dropkick. At 20 minutes into this it began to feel like a high-stakes classic, at least based on how the crowd was reacting. There seemed to be even more fans chanting for EVIL, lots of female voices. He went for the Millennium suplex but Okada reversed that into a Tombstone. Okada roared.
They had an unreal exchange towards the end of this that finished with a huge lariat from EVIL. Wow. The crowd was peaking here when EVIL landed Darkness Falls; Okada kicked out with a tenth of a second left. Okada returned from nowhere first with a backslide and then with a short lariat, not quite a Rainmaker, but did maintain wrist control.
The Hamamatsu crowd was chanting for Okada. He used one Rainmaker on EVIL but didn’t pin him. When he went for a second, EVIL countered and threw Okada with two Millennium suplexes. This really felt like EVIL’s chance. EVIL missed a running lariat and Okada dropkicked him in the back, then was caught by Okada with another dropkick as he came off the ropes. They had another crazy exchange, later EVIL finally landed the big running lariat.
EVIL went to finish, but Okada threw a hard short-range lariat, then a shotgun dropkick that knocked EVIL into the corner. Okada then landed a rolling Rainmaker and followed up with a traditional one to score the win with just a few minutes left to go. Awesome. EVIL came off as a serious threat to Okada here and it didn’t feel like he lost any face with this defeat, and, really, upped his value that much more with this performance.
Current G1 standings
A Block
Kazuchika Okada 14
Kota Ibushi 10
KENTA 8
Hiroshi Tanahashi 8
EVIL 8
SANADA 8
Zack Sabre Jr. 6
Bad Luck Fale 6
Will Ospreay 6
Lance Archer 4
B Block
Jon Moxley 10
Tomohiro Ishii 8
Tetsuya Naito 8
Hirooki Goto 8
Juice Robinson 6
Jeff Cobb 6
Toru Yano 6
Taichi 6
Jay White 6
Shingo Takagi 4
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