NJPW G1 Climax 27, Day 13
Holy shit, Satan is on commentary! Oh, it's just Honma's voice. Holy shit, Honma is on commentary!
The young lions had the power advantage, but the heels had the speed and experience on their side. BC cut off Oka for a while, Kitamura ran wild for a bit. Ok match.
Ok match, nothing big about it other than Suzuki worked Elgin's leg. Desperado pinned Kawato after the Guitarra del Angel. After the match Elgin and Suzuki brawled and Suzuki worked on the leg more.
Babyfaces started on top, then LIJ cut off Tenzan for the heat, Kojima with the hot tag and did his whole shtick. Kojima pinned BUSHI after a lariat. After the finish, the babyface seemed like the more disrespectful of the two.
Mostly a back and forward match, Juice dominated Chase Owens most of the match and Kenny was barely in it. After the match, Kenny tried to attack Juice, but David saw him.
Match that is being built is Okada vs EVIL, but we saw a lot of EVIL and Yano since LIJ had the heat on Yano for a while before Okada and EVIL could do their thing. Their stuff didn't impress me, but having seen what EVIL can do with a main eventer, i'm seriously excited about their match. Finish saw Yano pull Hiromu's hair and roll him up. Hiromu wanted to stab the motherfucker.
G1 Climax 27 Block A
For what I think was the first time in the tournament, Nagata was the one acting like a dick and not the other way around, fans were soo behind Ibushi that Nagata was doing those unnecessary slaps to the face. Match was awesome, Nagata worked the arm, Ibushi kept to his usual fast paced offense. Nagata pulled off a nearfall from the Last Ride and so Ibushi finished him with his version of the V-Trigger. If you consider that Nagata is 1 yr shy from 50 and having an 8/10 average rating AND zero wins, he has to be THE dark horse for the MVP of the G1.
G1 Climax 27 Block A
The match was somewhat slow. Seems that Ishii did learn a bit from their tag match last show and realize that he can't bring the giant down with just strikes, so his offense was more active and fast paced, his biggest attack was the constant running clotheslines until the finally got Fale down; Fale however, only needed to catch him, slam him and that was enough to completely cut Ishii out. Biggest spot came when after failing so many times, Ishii got Fale up for the brainbuster and dropped it successfully! Ishii however, didn't follow with a pin, he went for more clothslines, which again, Fale blocked and gained the momentum needed to hit the Choke Lariat Slam, which he also didn't follow with a pin, giving the opening to Ishii to hit a series of enziguiris and clotheslines. Another thing Ishii did a lot was work the arm with either a triangle hold or an armbar, but both times saw Fale power himself out. Fale won with the Bad Luck Slam. Match was good, but felt unnecessarily long after both men had already landed their finishers, regardless of who lost, they would look like an idiot for not pinning their opponent when they had the chance.
G1 Climax 27 Block A
Both men worked each other's neck in what felt like a Kikutaro paced match, at least for the first half of the match. The second half of the match did get slightly better, but not that much, they kept focusing on the neck until Goto put down YH with a GTR for the win.
G1 Climax 27 Block A
I love how serious Sabre usually feels during his matches, even being part of Suzuki-Gun, he never resorts to jumping anyone or going for the countout spots. Naito worked the neck, Sabre started with the neck, but then as usual proceeded to focus on the arms, but I mean, at the end of the day, Sabre kinda works on all your body even when it's not his main focus. At the end of this match, they just started going 100 mph with tons of reversals and some of those crazy reversal pins that Sabre does that gave us some awesome nearfalls, sequence ended with Naito landing Destino for the pin. Naito was selling the shoulder at the end. Loved this match, he also spat at Honma, making it the second time he antagonizes him during the tournament.
G1 Climax 27 Block A
Makabe came with a plan to hit Tanahashi with every possible lariat he could get in, that was literally his offense until he felt it was a good time to start going for the King Kong Knee. Tanahashi's plan here was pretty much the usual Tanahashi plan to weaken the opponent for a while until he can start landing High Fly Flows, which he used to win the match. I didn't feel this match that much, in hindsight I would have rather end with Naito vs Sabre.
Post-match - Tanahashi played his stupid guitar at the end.
Took me a while to start getting into this show, it was my main man Nagata to get me excited. A good block show, weak uneventful undercard.
Katsuya Kitamura & Tomoyuki Oka vs Bullet Club (Tama Tonga vs Yujiro Takahashi) - 4/10
The young lions had the power advantage, but the heels had the speed and experience on their side. BC cut off Oka for a while, Kitamura ran wild for a bit. Ok match.
Suzuki-Gun (Minoru Suzuki, El Desperado, & Taichi) vs Michael Elgin, Tiger Mask IV, & Hirai Kawato - 4/10
Ok match, nothing big about it other than Suzuki worked Elgin's leg. Desperado pinned Kawato after the Guitarra del Angel. After the match Elgin and Suzuki brawled and Suzuki worked on the leg more.
Los Ingobernables de Japon (SANADA & BUSHI) vs TenCozy - 4.5/10
Babyfaces started on top, then LIJ cut off Tenzan for the heat, Kojima with the hot tag and did his whole shtick. Kojima pinned BUSHI after a lariat. After the finish, the babyface seemed like the more disrespectful of the two.
Taguchi Japan (Juice Robinson & David Finlay) vs Bullet Club (Kenny Omega & Chase Owens) - 4/10
Mostly a back and forward match, Juice dominated Chase Owens most of the match and Kenny was barely in it. After the match, Kenny tried to attack Juice, but David saw him.
Los Ingobernables de Japon (EVIL & Himoru Takahashi) vs CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada & Toru Yano) w/Gedo - 5.5/10
Match that is being built is Okada vs EVIL, but we saw a lot of EVIL and Yano since LIJ had the heat on Yano for a while before Okada and EVIL could do their thing. Their stuff didn't impress me, but having seen what EVIL can do with a main eventer, i'm seriously excited about their match. Finish saw Yano pull Hiromu's hair and roll him up. Hiromu wanted to stab the motherfucker.
G1 Climax 27 Block A
Kota Ibushi (6) vs Yuji Nagata (0) - 8.5/10
For what I think was the first time in the tournament, Nagata was the one acting like a dick and not the other way around, fans were soo behind Ibushi that Nagata was doing those unnecessary slaps to the face. Match was awesome, Nagata worked the arm, Ibushi kept to his usual fast paced offense. Nagata pulled off a nearfall from the Last Ride and so Ibushi finished him with his version of the V-Trigger. If you consider that Nagata is 1 yr shy from 50 and having an 8/10 average rating AND zero wins, he has to be THE dark horse for the MVP of the G1.
G1 Climax 27 Block A
Bad Luck Fale (6) vs Tomohiro Ishii (8) - 7.5/10
The match was somewhat slow. Seems that Ishii did learn a bit from their tag match last show and realize that he can't bring the giant down with just strikes, so his offense was more active and fast paced, his biggest attack was the constant running clotheslines until the finally got Fale down; Fale however, only needed to catch him, slam him and that was enough to completely cut Ishii out. Biggest spot came when after failing so many times, Ishii got Fale up for the brainbuster and dropped it successfully! Ishii however, didn't follow with a pin, he went for more clothslines, which again, Fale blocked and gained the momentum needed to hit the Choke Lariat Slam, which he also didn't follow with a pin, giving the opening to Ishii to hit a series of enziguiris and clotheslines. Another thing Ishii did a lot was work the arm with either a triangle hold or an armbar, but both times saw Fale power himself out. Fale won with the Bad Luck Slam. Match was good, but felt unnecessarily long after both men had already landed their finishers, regardless of who lost, they would look like an idiot for not pinning their opponent when they had the chance.
G1 Climax 27 Block A
YOSHI-HASHI (4) vs Hirooki Goto (6) - 7.5/10
Both men worked each other's neck in what felt like a Kikutaro paced match, at least for the first half of the match. The second half of the match did get slightly better, but not that much, they kept focusing on the neck until Goto put down YH with a GTR for the win.
G1 Climax 27 Block A
Tetsuya Naito (8) vs Zack Sabre Jr (8) w/El Desperado - 9/10
I love how serious Sabre usually feels during his matches, even being part of Suzuki-Gun, he never resorts to jumping anyone or going for the countout spots. Naito worked the neck, Sabre started with the neck, but then as usual proceeded to focus on the arms, but I mean, at the end of the day, Sabre kinda works on all your body even when it's not his main focus. At the end of this match, they just started going 100 mph with tons of reversals and some of those crazy reversal pins that Sabre does that gave us some awesome nearfalls, sequence ended with Naito landing Destino for the pin. Naito was selling the shoulder at the end. Loved this match, he also spat at Honma, making it the second time he antagonizes him during the tournament.
G1 Climax 27 Block A
Hiroshi Tanahashi (8) vs Togi Makabe (6) - 7.5/10
Makabe came with a plan to hit Tanahashi with every possible lariat he could get in, that was literally his offense until he felt it was a good time to start going for the King Kong Knee. Tanahashi's plan here was pretty much the usual Tanahashi plan to weaken the opponent for a while until he can start landing High Fly Flows, which he used to win the match. I didn't feel this match that much, in hindsight I would have rather end with Naito vs Sabre.
Post-match - Tanahashi played his stupid guitar at the end.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
Took me a while to start getting into this show, it was my main man Nagata to get me excited. A good block show, weak uneventful undercard.