JAY WHITE & MASCARA DORADA vs. BULLET CLUB (Cody Hall & Yujiro Takahashi)- 6/10
CAPTAIN NEW JAPAN & KUSHIDA vs. BULLET CLUB (Karl Anderson & Tama Tonga)- 5/10
HIROOKI GOTO & YOHEI KOMATSU vs. DAVID FINLAY JR. & MICHAEL ELGIN- 5.5/10
Fine for what it was.
YUJI NAGATA, TOMOAKI HONMA, RYUSUKE TAGUCHI, & SATOSHI KOJIMA vs. CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada, Shinsuke Nakamura, Tomohiro Ishii, & YOSHI-HASHI) (w/Gedo)- 7.25/10
This was a completely serious match that somehow also managed to be completely hilarious. Nakamura kicked Taguchi or something halfway through the entrances. I have no idea why, but it was kind of funny. I laughed my ass off at Okada, Nakamura, and Ishii doing one of those goofy Dragon Gate triple team moves where you all three give the other guy a big boot at the same time, then two guys pick the other u and drop him on the opponent. The best spot, though, was Taguchi giving Nakamura a butt-butt version of the Rainmaker (which was kicked out of)
G1 CLIMAX 25 BLOCK A MATCH: Tetsuya Naito vs. Doc Gallows (w/Tama Tonga)- 6.75/10
Well… just based on the standings, you knew that someone in Block A had to lose an upset at someone point, so…
G1 CLIMAX 25 BLOCK A MATCH: Katsuyori Shibata vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan- 7/10
Or maybe two upsets.
G1 CLIMAX 25 BLOCK A MATCH: Toru Yano vs. Kota Ibushi- no rating. Decent segment.
Or three.
And this was the one that caught me the most by surprise, simply because I thought Kota needed to win to still look like he was at least competitive in the block at the end of the tournament. The match went about a minute, but for some reason I was strangely okay with this here.
G1 CLIMAX 25 BLOCK A MATCH: AJ Styles vs. Bad Luck Fale- see below for rating.
This match will be very interesting because AJ and Fale are both tied in points and are both at the top of their block (tied with, I believe, Tanahashi and Naito), so this win will be pretty big, which is an interesting place for a Bull et Club vs. Bullet Club match.
Okay… go out and watch this match for yourself before reading the rest of my review.
Hidden text.
I cannot believe they did that.G1 CLIMAX 25 BLOCK A MATCH: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Togi Makabe- 7/10
Tanahashi works over the knee, Mabake works over the back.
An extremely odd show from New Japan, but a VERY fun one. Whatever you do, make sure that you see Fale vs. AJ.