NJPW G1 Climax 28 - 7.22

Toa Henare & Shota Umino vs Guerrillas of Destiny - 4.5/10

Standard opener. GoD worked heavily over both guys with only a small comeback from Umino over Loa and Henare getting some offense towards the end, but Go was never under. Loa won with the Apeshit on Umino.

Toru Yano & Gedo vs Hirooki Goto & YOH - 5/10

CHAOS teams collide. We got some good comedy and ok action, nothing like Goto vs Ishii, or even Ishii vs Yano, but still quite enjoyable. Last two were YOH vs Gedo, with YOH rolling Gedo with teh Gedo Clutch into the Five Star.

Zack Sabre Jr & TAKA Michinoku vs Tomohiro Ishii & SHO - 6/10

Good match, I can't say TAKA vs SHO was great, but everything was good. Little story here is that Sabre started working over Ishii's arm, so expect some heavy arm work on their match, potentially hurting Ishii's capacity to Lariat Sabre. Finish saw TAKA tap out to SHO's armbar. Should be a great match next show. After the match Sabre locked in the armbar on Ishii, but it only pissed off Ishii more.

Juice Robinson & David Finlay vs Kenny Omega & Chase Owens - 6/10

Kenny early on injured Juice's arm and felt bad about it and tagged out. Taguchi Japan worked a bit over Owens, then BC work over Finlay for another while. A lot o comedy in this match. Juice tried to fight off both Kenny and Owens, but the numbers game was too much. Kenny went for Finlay, leaving Owens open for a Juice Box for the Robinson win. Good action, but nothing to excite me about tomorrow other than their previous G1 match and that they're champ vs champ.

Kota Ibushi & Yujiro Takahashi vs Tetsuya Naito & SANADA - 7/10

SANADA vs Ibushi was great, but the fans popped hard for Yujiro vs Naito since they have a LOT of history together.
Both pairs had some great stuff, I actually want to see a whole Yujiro vs Naito match now. Naito won with a Victory Roll on Yujiro. Match was short tho. Naito and SANADA are still not fist bumping.

G1 Climax Block A Match
YOSHI-HASHI (0) vs Michael Elgin (4) - 8.5/10

Story here was that Elgin was considerably stronger than YH, but YOSHI just brought a strong match and strong heart and overcame the beast. Most of the match saw Elgin overpower YOSHI, but YH kept getting out of moves. As the match went on, YH started to get more and more momentum, slowly thinning Elgin out, but YH kept taking a lot of punishment to do so. Finish saw Elgin just destroy YH, but he couldn't stay down for the pin, he kicked out of everything, at the end it was Burning Hammer that YOSHI counters that opens a chance to hit KARMA for his first win. This was a great example of underdog fire. I'm not sure what the plans are for YH after the G1, but it seems like he's turning a leaf, but his next matches are Okada and Tana, so don't expect much.

G1 Climax Block A Match
Bad Luck Fale (2) w/Tanga Loa vs EVIL (4) - 7/10

Good that they didn't allow Red Shoes to referee another OGs match since we now know he's a biased referee. Early in the match, EVIL was smart enough to push Loa into hitting him and get the easy DQ since he knows that these guys don't care about points and he can take the easy points home for a few punches. Unfortunately, he needs the ref to pay attention, and so getting everything together takes some work. Plan kinda backfired for a bit since Fale kicked his ass and worked over EVIL's arm for a long time.

Eventually, EVIL uses the distractions to make a comeback by making the ref get distracted with Loa and use a chair on Fale, and from here on, EVIL started to chop down the tree called Fale. Towards the end, the match became a stiff looking hoss fight, big moves and lariats galore. There was a ref bump that wasn't as obvious as some other's we've seen, this one looked accidental, but still it meant that Loa got in there and we saw the same spot with Loa and Fale hitting each other, except this time, before Tama Tonga came out, it was BUSHI who came out to take out Loa with the Myst. Tama Tonga came out and took out BUSHI, when he went for EVIL, Naito came down to help out EVIL. The end was EVIL dropping Fale with the STO, but the ref, barely waking up decided not to count until everyone left the ring, at this point Tama Tonga simply hit the Gun Stun on EVIL for the DQ. He hit one on Naito for good measure since Naito and Tama are fighting next show. I thought that among the chaos, we may still get pin finish, but it wasn't the case.

If anything else, I do like that now Firing Squad has antagonized not only Kenny and Co, but Tanahashi and Co, and now LIJ. Can't wait to see what happens when they face off with Suzuki-Gun.

G1 Climax Block A Match
Minoru Suzuki (2) El Desperado vs "Switchblade" Jay White (6) - 8/10

Talking about confrontations with Suzuki, this time, White can't throw out 'Komatsu' to die for him. This is also the youngest G1 competitor vs the oldest one. Enjoy this match, because it's not often that Suzuki finds himself the babyface.

Match from the start was White being a cocky heel on Suzuki, he kept dodging him, but getting cheap shots here and there until he was able to properly work over him, but he kept mocking him so much to the point that Suzuki just got pissed and tried to break White's fingers. Pissed off Suzuki started killing White, so White had to start and rely on his dirty tactics like pulling the ref or low blows, but Suzuki kept blocking all that stuff, until he landed the Gotch Piledriver and dominantly pinned Jay White. This had to be the most satisfying finish in the G1 so far. Unfortunately the match itself wasn't a classic or anything.

G1 Climax Block A Match
Hangman Page (2) vs Hiroshi Tanahashi (4) - 8.5/10

Early on, Tanahashi gave his guitar to Page, but Page broke it in half and this pissed off Tanahashi. Page started working over Tanahashi's injured leg early on, he kept that offense for a while. Match continued back and forward with both guys hitting each other hard, Tanahashi worked the leg as usual as Page started chasing the Rite of Passage, but it was Tanahashi who hit the Slingblade/High Fly Flow first for the win. Good match, Tanahashi did everything he could to show off Page, but the match also felt somewhat short for it to be memorable. I really think Tanahashi likes Page.

G1 Climax Block A Match
"Balloonmaker" Kazuchika Okada (2) vs Togi Makabe (4) - 7/10

Okada tried to get a jump on Makabe, but Togi quickly went to the outside and turned it into a brawl that ended with Okada ramming Togi to the barricade for a count out tease. Okada is being cocky tonight. Okada pushed Togi to get into a strike match, which Okada kept his own, but it gave Makabe enough to make a small comeback. Towards the end, Okada started going for his signature moves, but Makabe was back enough that he was able to counter and hit his own. Makabe chased the Spider German and King Kong Knee Drop, but Okada countered with his dropkicks. Rainmaker for the win.

This was kinda long for how underwhelming it was, I never felt like they hit second gear. Arguably the weakest main event so far.

Post-match - Okada cut his promo saying he had...nothing to say.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

Good wrestling, but kinda underwhelming. My biggest hype was White and Suzuki, which was good, but it wasn't the ass kicking I wanted to see. At the end of the show, i think the highlight for me are YOSHI-HASHI and Yujiro Takahashi, and THAT is a big problem.