NJPW G1 Climax 29 Night 16 results: Takagi and Ishii go to war in B-Block main event

Night 16 of the NJPW G1 Climax 29 tournament was in Kanagawa prefecture at the Yokohama Cultural Gymnasium and featured the next round of B-Block matches, including Tomohiro Ishii vs. Shingo Takagi in the high-impact main event.

Shota Umino and Ren Narita def. Yota Tsuji and Yuya Uemura

A solid short match from the four Young Lions, as per usual. Umino and Narita landed a big double dropkick at one point, then Umino pinned Tsuji with a fisherman’s suplex to pick up the win.

Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens def. EVIL, SANADA & BUSHI

No surprises here. Bullet Club jumped LIJ before the bell. Fale choked SANADA with a mic cord near the English broadcast table and cursed at Kevin Kelly. Owens tried putting SANADA in the Paradise Lock but couldn’t do it and started asking popular purveyor of the hold, Milano Collection AT, for help while he was on commentary. Owens couldn’t pull it off, so he just started stomping SANADA. Both he and EVIL were well received by the crowd. Owens pinned BUSHI after a package piledriver; he later Too-Sweet’d a young fan as he and the Club went to the back.

Minoru Suzuki, Lance Archer & Zack Sabre Jr. def. KENTA, Clark Connors & Karl Fredericks

Suzuki-gun went after their opponents just as the bell rang. KENTA and Sabre got into it on the floor ahead of their A Block match at Nippon Budokan this Saturday; when they were in the ring together they looked really good, they both complement each other extremely well, and KENTA’s conditioning looks higher than it has in years.

Suzuki abused LA Dojo rookie Karl Fredericks for a bit, and later on he punished Clark Connors as well. Connors tried really hard to out-chop Suzuki and even brought him to his knees at one point. Suzuki looked great with both guys. In the end he used a Gotcha-Style piledriver on Connors to score the win for his team in this fun brawl. Things fell apart after the bell, Archer decked a few ringside staffers and Sabre continued attacking KENTA’s left arm. They played “Kaze ni Nare” afterwards, too, purely as fan service, and the crowd sounded pleased as they sang along.

Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi & YOSHI-HASHI def. Kota Ibushi, Will Ospreay & Toa Henare

Ibushi and Okada were in together first and the crowd sounded hot but split between the two ahead of their match this weekend. Okada mostly toyed with Ibushi but Ibushi was able to get a few licks in, a few quick kicks in. It’s difficult to anticipate how Ibushi and Okada will wrestle on Saturday but it should be great based on their short time in the ring here and common knowledge.

It was apparent how popular Ospreay was when he hit the ring. He buzzed around like a wasp and took both Okada and YOSHI-HASHI off the apron and gave us a preview of his and Tana’s bout this weekend. It was another quick preview and it gave us the idea that’ll be great, but again, why wouldn’t you think that? YOSHI-HASHI pinned Henare later with the Bear Crusher brainbuster to pick up the win for CHAOS. But again, this was a teaser for two of the more anticipated matches of the weekend, and possibly the entire summer.

B Block: Toru Yano (8) def. Taichi (8) (w/ Miho Abe) via count-out

Taichi stalled and took his time taking his ring gear off before the match started. Yano kept yelling at him, that he was slow, that he had to enter the ring now, and when Taichi finally got in the ring and was ready to wrestle, Yano walked out and towards the back. Yoshinobu Kanemaru was waiting for him atop the stage and attacked him as Taichi distracted referee Marty Asami. Kanemaru wrapped him in the apron dressing and Yano wasn’t able to make it into the ring until the 18-count. Jushin Liger, who was on commentary, found all of this very funny.

Yano pulled the ring post pad off of one of the neutral corners, and then he and Taichi played hot potato with the protective padding until the referee caught it and threw it from the ring. Yano went for a few sneaky pints but couldn’t keep Taichi down. Taichi went for an Axe Bomber but flew out of the ring over the top rope. Yano landed a double low-blow on Taichi and Kanemaru, then wrapped both up in the apron. Miho Abe tried unwrapping them but it was too late — Yano won the match by count-out.

B Block: Tetsuya Naito (10) def. Jeff Cobb (6)

Cobb went after Naito at the top of this. He tossed him high over his head from the corner to the middle of the mat, and from here Naito rolled to the floor selling his back. He came back quickly and used low dropkicks to cut Cobb down and neck breakers and stomps on the vertebrae to soften him up for a possible Destino later. He smacked Cobb in the head and spit at him. Cobb returned the attacks with a big delayed front suplex and later a standing moonsault.

You could hear the crowd buzzing when both were on the top rope jockeying for leverage when Cobb landed a deadlift superplex that looked awesome — Naito isn’t small. Cobb used a swinging backdrop suplex for two. Naito countered with a super Frankensteiner from the other top rope across the ring. He tried a swinging DDT from off the ropes but Cobb blocked it; Naito landed a reverse Frankensteiner that spiked Cobb on his head. He went for a Destino but Cobb again blocked, thew Naito into a fireman’s carry and then spun him like flat pizza dough across the ring. Milano Collection AT said “What was that!?”

They traded short elbow strikes in the middle of the mat. Naito spat at Cobb, and then Cobb went for Tour of the Islands but Naito reversed it into Destino for two, then hit another for three. The last few minutes of this were all crazy high spots and the crowd was into it, and especially loud behind Naito.

B Block: Hirooki Goto (10) def. Jon Moxley (12)

This has to be one of the biggest upsets of the year, right? Goto asked for a boxing-style double fist-pound before they started, so Mox slammed both his fists down atop Goto’s. They exchanged stiff elbow shots for a while until Moxley knocked Goto to the floor; Mox bowed in apology for possibly being too violent. The fight spilled to the floor and then back to the middle of the ring and it was elbows, just elbows and shoulder blocks and more elbows, and sometimes a lariat. Goto got the better of one exchange, but later Moxley planted Goto with a Rock Bottom and Goto stayed plastered for a few moments longer than usual.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen Moxley do this, but he used a Billy Robinson-style single-arm suplex and floated over into a double wrist-lock/kimura lock, then transitioned to an armbar. Must be gearing up for his recently-announced Bloodsport match with Josh Barnett.

Goto finally countered back with an ushigoroshi. They kept banging into each other with lariats until both collapsed. Moxley later hit Dirty Deeds but didn’t go for the pin, instead going for the Death Rider, but it didn’t work out because Goto countered and transitioned from a fireman’s carry to a GTR to get the clean pin over Moxley.

B Block: Jay White (w/ Gedo) (10) def. Juice Robinson (6)

This was a fun brawl with a good story to it. It wasn’t like their bout last summer in California but it worked, and for this summer’s booking it made sense. White played mind games with Robinson early on. He rolled out of the ring, then rolled back and offered him a handshake. “Just like old times,” White would say. He’d sneak in shots when he could, until Robinson came back with some offense of his own. When things were difficult for White he’d sneak back to the floor and get Gedo involved, Robinson would get distracted, White would circle, Robinson would grab a chair, referee Red Shoes would block Robinson from using it, thus continuing the the cycle of distractions, White’s usual modus operandi.

White began working over Robinson’s ankle and Juice did a great job selling the injury throughout. White sat deep into a single-leg crab, still working over Robinson’s left leg and ankle. White mocked Juice and did his Terry Funk-style jabs, but Robinson in turn jabbed his way back into the match. He took White to the floor and did a stun-gun to him, dropping White neck-first across the blue guardrail. He worked over White’s right knee and rammed it across the ring post.

White used a back suplex later on to dump Robinson over the top rope to the floor, all to the absolute delight of a hyena-like Gedo on the floor. White rolled Robinson into the ring quickly and landed a big uranage on him, though Robinson countered with a full-nelson slam of his own. Both sold on the mat for a minute until Robinson got up first and was able to land a falling power bomb on White for two. Robinson floated over into a high angle Boston crab but White elbowed his way out of the hold, elbowing Juice in the already-injured knee, the one he’d been working over earlier in the match. He locked Robinson in an inverted figure four knee lock. Robinson sold it like his muscle was being sliced apart. He grabbed the bottom rope just before the crowd thought he’d tap.

They had a Hail Mary exchange, both throwing everything they had at each other even though only 10 minutes had passed in the match. White hit a sleeper suplex. Robinson went to hit Pulp Friction but Gedo stood up on the apron; White landed a low blow behind Red Shoes’ back on Robinson, then Robinson was shoved into Red Shoes and everyone was knocked out. When Robinson was back up he went for Pulp Friction on a chair but missed and landed back-first on said chair. White went to town on Robinson’s injured knee with the chair, then locked in the same inverted figure four again, and Robinson finally tapped for real and White picked up two more points. He’s now in a three-way tie for second place, along with Tetsuya Naito and Hirooki Goto.

B Block: Shingo Takagi (6) def. Tomohiro Ishii (8)

No one wants war but everyone wanted Ishii vs. Takagi this summer. It was a tank battle, a demolition match.

Both clenched their jaws and stretched and rolled their necks before the bell. They locked up and grappled to the ropes until the first break, where Takagi chopped Ishii. It did nothing. They had a tackle contest but no one would budge, neither would go down on their own. Takagi shoved Ishii. They traded harder elbows as the crowd chanted along. It was difficult to hear who they were primarily behind but it sounded 60/40 in favor of the Stone Pitbull.

Ishii spent the middle of this wearing Takagi down both physically and in spirit. He patronized him with soccer kicks, taunted him. Takagi sold Ishii’s offense like he’d be jumped in a back alley. He finally came back and hit a perfect vertical suplex and a falling Tenryu-style elbow drop from the top rope. Once Takagi found his footing he started grinding down on Ishii with forearms and other strikes and holds centered around Ishii’s shoulders, neck and head.

Takagi placed Ishii in the corner, and at this point Ishii apparently wasn’t feeling any pain and insisted on Takagi laying in some elbows. He did and Ishii didn’t move. He kept at it and Ishii’s face stayed the same, stone. With every blow Takagi threw Ishii would walk into it, Takagi visibly selling his arm from all these hard strikes until he opts for a straight right jab followed with a brutal lariat to finally take Ishii off his feet. Ishii responded with a vertical suplex. They exchanged even more elbows. Ishii took Takagi on a short trip through Suplex City and threw three backdrop suplexes in a row. He superplexed Takagi from the second rope to the middle of the ring.

Ishii’s ear was bleeding at this point in the match, almost 15 minutes in. Takagi returned the Ishii assault with another hard lariat. He teased Made in Japan but couldn’t pull it off. He threw more stiff lariats until Ishii landed a hard headbutt to buy him some recover time, but it was for naught since Takagi finally did land Made in Japan moments later for a big two-count, then the Pumping Bomber for another close nearfall. The crowd finally sounded loud behind Ishii here.

They were both writhing on the mat after Ishii came back with a release German suplex. He landed two lariats on Takagi for two and you could see his ear was bleeding more than before. At 20 minutes into this Ishii went for the vertical drop brainbuster, and after a few tries Takagi reversed it into a Jackhammer-type move.

The match crescendo came when both Ishii and Takagi threw short Riki Lariats and kicked out at counts of one. The crashed into each other with a double lariat, then another that Takagi got the better of, knocking Ishii over. He landed yet another Pumping Bomber for an even closer nearfall, and finally Last of the Dragon to win the match in a little over 20 minutes. This was a war. Both bumped heads on the mat afterwards, like goats, exchanged words and that was that.

Current G1 standings

A Block

Kazuchika Okada 14
Kota Ibushi 12
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
Tetsuya Naito 10
Hirooki Goto 10
Jay White 10
Tomohiro Ishii 8
Toru Yano 8
Juice Robinson 6
Jeff Cobb 6
Taichi 6
Shingo Takagi 6