Cero Reviews NJPW G1 Climax 31, 10.21

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Cero Reviews NJPW G1 Climax 31, 10.21

Post by cero2k » Oct 21st, '21, 16:11

NJPW G1 Climax 31, Final Day
October 21st 2021
Nippon Budokan, Tokyo, Japan

Suzuki-gun (El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) vs. Kosei Fujita & Ryohei Oiwa - 6.5/10
Good opener, they got a bit of time and thus the Lions got a bit more offense in on, but ultimately, they lost when Kanemaru tapped out Fujita via Boston Crab.

Toru Yano & Yuji Nagata vs. United Empire (Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb) - 6.5/10
This was ok. A lot of the match went to Yano and O-Khan antagonizing each other, going back to their feud earlier this year. The match didn't become a comedy bout, but there was a lot of running around early on. Cobb working over Yano was better since it was all Cobb, and for that matter, Nagata didn't do as much, but he did get some offense in. At the end, it came down to Yano and O-Khan again, ending with Yano low blowing and rolling O-Khan for the pin.

CHAOS (Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI) vs. BULLET CLUB (EVIL, SHO & Yujiro Takahashi) (w/Dick Togo) - 6/10
This is the first time since his turn that SHO has been opposite of a CHAOS team, and some of them were ready to beat his cocky little butt. Ishii specially got tired of him beating up Goto and being all cocky.

The match itself was a Togo match, yes I'm not even blaming EVIL now, from now on, when EVIL has a bad match, I'm calling it a Togo match. It was a lot of brawling, cheats, heel heat, weapons, and at the end, HoT win after an Everything is EVIL. This really was just a heel vehicle to set up a shot for the trios titles, but I do wanna see a singles match between Ishii and SHO.

Post-match - House of Torture posed with the trios titles. SHO made sure to antagonize Ishii and hit a Shock Arrow for good measure.

Hiroshi Tanahashi, Tiger Mask, Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma vs. BULLET CLUB (Chase Owens, KENTA, Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa) - 7/10
Can't say I remember the last time I saw Makabe wrestle, especially as G.H.B., so I wouldn't be surprised if they're getting ready to enter the Tag League.

This match was one of those that feel like they're serving many masters. It felt like they're setting up TenKozy and Guerrillas for the Tag League, and they're setting up Owens and KENTA to challenge for the US title. I didn't think the match itself was anything noteworthy, it was good and Tanahashi helped it a lot, but it's still a match with four babyfaces that don't move as great as they used to. Somewhat surprisingly at the end, Owens was the one to get the win for the Bullet Club, hitting a Package Piledriver on Honma.

Post-match - Chase Owens initially challenged Tanahashi for the US title, but when they were exchanging words, KENTA attacked Tanahashi with the actual belt from behind and knocked him down. KENTA and Owens had a little face down for the title, but it did seem like Owens is allowing KENTA to take the match first as long as he gets a shot afterwards.

NJPW 50th Anniversary Announcement - During the intermission they brought up that 2022 is the 50th Anniversary year of NJPW.

Grappling Rules Match
Katsuyori Shibata vs. Zack Sabre Jr. - No Rating. Awesome
Well, what a fucking pleasant surprise, this wasn't advertised yesterday! What a great gift to those that kept watching NJPW. They didn't get a lot of time, this may have been as last minute as it felt, but for what it was, it was awesome. The crowd reaction, the emotion from the commentary team (who didn't seem to know this was coming), it was all great.

The grappling itself was basic, but it actually had some escalation from messing around on the mat to going for some head submissions, ending with a back and forth battle of reversals until the clock ran out.

Post-match - Sabre tried to get 5 more minutes, but Shibata didn't catch up quickly and the referee kinda called it. Afterwards, Shibata took the mic and said that the next time, he'll be wearing his ring gear. Shibata is BACK!

Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Master Wato, Ryusuke Taguchi & Satoshi Kojima vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi, SANADA & Shingo Takagi) - 7.5/10
This was very good all things considered, and by that I mean, this was a match with Tenzan in it. There were some good combinations in this match and everyone had their working shoes on. We got Hiromu vs Taguchi early on, LIJ cutting off Wato, Kojima vs SANADA pair up, Tenzan and BUSHI towards the end before setting up Shingo and Tenzan for the final run with everyone coming in and out and taking it home with a Pumping Bomber from Shingo on Tenzan for the win.

G1 Climax 2021 Final Match
Block A Winner Kota Ibushi vs Block B Winner Kazuchika Okada - No Rating.
I'm not rating this match because of the Ibushi injury. It doesn't feel fair to lower the grade on what was on its way to being a great match, but I can't fully give it a high grade on something that ended with a referee decision after an injury. What happened was that Ibushi missed a Phoenix Splash, came down hard on his left arm, and from what we got to see, he seemed to have broken his forearm, or something around that. There had been corner dropkick spot early in the match that saw him clutch his arm initially, but it didn't seem serious at that point, but it could had been where things actually happened, and it was the PS that really fucked Ibushi up.

The match up to that had been great, a really dominant Okada until the Rainmaker pose, but then Ibushi made a comeback and Okada completely lost control of the match, he couldn't regain momentum and kept getting hit by lariats and even a Kamigoye. I think the Phoenix Splash was the turning point, but we unfortunately, won't know.

Okada seemed legitimately moved and worried for Ibushi, he tried to help him and the staff when they were checking on Ibushi, but he just seemed as someone that wasn't sure how to help.

What can be said about Ibushi, he's been cursed for a while. He came into the G1 not being 100%, actually improved and was heading to showing us the normal Ibushi, and now this happens. One day he'll make a comeback and win that title, and that story will just be glorious.

Post-match - Okada got his trophy and cut a short promo for the planned ceremony that he didn't seemed excited to have anymore.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
Cannot say this was great show, it was ok, the one match that was going to pillar this whole show ended in an injury, but at the end of the day, Shibata came back and nothing else matters, that alone was worth sitting down and watching the show.
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