NJPW G1 Climax 28 - 8.4

Bad Luck Fale & Tanga Loa vs YOSHI-HASHI & SHO - 5/10

Basic opener match, stuff between YOSHI and Fale was about YH cutting down Fale by going after the leg, while Fale used his size to overpower YH. For some reason that I've never liked, YH was trying to suplex fale and kept failing, I really don't know why he'd even try. The rest was between Loa and SHO, who had a good babyface momentum building, but Loa cut it out with a Sidewalk Slam, Apeshit, and pin.

Minoru Suzuki & El Desperado vs Hangman Page & Chase Owens - 6.5/10

For a match that you wouldn't expect anything out of, this was really good. MVP of the G1 Climax, Owens took on Desperado and they had a great exchange. All the meanwhile, Suzuki and Page were brawling on the outside.

Once inside the ring, Suzuki and Page had a good teaser, it gave me vibes that if there was ever a younger gaijin that could earn Suzuki's respect, it could be Page, at least earn it inside the ring. Finish saw Suzuki hit the GSP on Owens while Despy held off Page outside. Good visual, good match.

"Swtichblade" Jay White & YOH vs Togi Makabe & Toa Henare - 5/10

The story of White and YOH teaming was followed up properly here in my opinion after that YH/SHO match. Here we saw the same White trying to corrupt YOH, but this time, YOH was far less giving.

Story between Makabe and White was pretty much the young kid disrespecting the old timer until Makabe got fed up. Meanwhile, White was also coming in and out of the match as he saw fit for his own well, he would constantly tag in on YOH when YOH had the upper hand, and vice versa when Makabe would get some offense in. Finish saw White hit the Bladerunner on Henare when he tripped him off the top rope. After the match, White attacked both guys with a chair.

Micheal Elgin & David Finlay vs Hiroshi Tanahashi & Shota Umino - 5.5/10

How can they make Finlay choose between Tanahashi and Elgin? And why would he choose Elgin!? Anyway, Shota is actually far better, so smart choice for Tanahashi.

Match was about Elgin showing off his strength against Tanahashi, and Tanahashi starting his work on Elgin's leg. They did a ton of spots, but at the end, it was Finlay and Umino trading near falls and after a Stunner, Finlay picked up the win. Good action packed match.

Kazuchika OKada & Gedo vs EVIL & BUSHI - 5.5/10

This wasn't a clinic of a match, but the dominance established here for LIJ was great. It first started with some comedy between Gedo and BUSHI, but once Okada and EVIL got in, they went straight into action. Lots of reversals throughout out the match, which played out to the finish, when Okada tries to go for an STO on EVIL, but EVIL simply blocks it, turns it into a Rainmaker, lands it and takes out Okada for good, leaving Gedo as easy prey for BUSHI's MX. LIJ stood tall at the end as Okada and Gedo were dead in the mat.

G1 Climax Block B Match
SANADA (6) vs Toru Yano (2) - 7.5/10

This was technically a continuation from the G1 Climax 27 match. This time it seemed like Yano was going to get the jump on SANADA, but in all of Yano's attempts, SANADA got the better of him.

From the start, Yano jumped SANADA and tied him up with a t-shirt for the count out tease. Inside the ring, Yano went for a bunch of quick rolls, but nothing. So he took the match outside, but here SANADA locked in the Paradise Lock for a count out like last year, but Rocky Romero got off the commentary table and untied Yano. We had some turnbuckle pad action that once again, SANADA ended on top, and finally, once again outside the ring, SANADA locked in the Paradise Lock TO a barricade and tied the barricade to the ring. Rocky Romero tried to interfere again, and got locked in the nudo himself too. SANADA once again won via count out on Yano. Great comedy match.

G1 Climax Block B Match
Hirooki Goto (4) vs Tama Tonga (4) w/Tanga Loa - 6/10

This was virtually the same thing as Tama Tonga vs Ishii, with all the Firing Squad constantly interfering and Goto just fighting off against them all and all the cheating and dealing with dead refs and stuff. This was a clusterfuck, but when Goto and Tonga had a chance to wrestle, it was good, and regardless of the chaos at the end, it was somewhat exciting to see if Goto could get the clean win at the end.

Towards the finish, I think the timekeeper botched the call when Fale pulled the ref, he immediately started sounding the ringbell like when there is a post-match brawl, but the match wasn't over since we still had Fale taking out Goto, dragging Tama Tonga on top, and having Red Shoes once again flip off the FS and hit the DQ.

G1 Climax Block B Match
Zack Sabre Jr (6) w/TAKA Michinoku vs Juice Robinson (4) - 9/10

Zack Sabre Jr is the Grand Master Daddy of Technical submission and Torture. No Fucking Discussion about it. Many times you see a match end in submission and you suspend your disbelief to believe that that Crossface or that Butterfly Lock hurt, but with this match, there was no doubt whatsoever, that I would have tapped out to Sabre at the end.

Juice having an injured hand was the obvious target for Sabre, so he went straight for that. Juice tried to turn the match into a striking one, and for a while they did, but as soon as Sabre lost the upper hand, he went back to submissions. They went back and forward a lot, Juice always going for either strikes or his big moves like Juicebox, Spinerbuster, and such, but Sabre kept reversing most of them.

At the end, Juice is going for Pulp Friction, but Sabre reverses it. Juice tries a cradle, but Sabre gets out and applies a weird combination of motorcycle arms being held by his feet, then with one arm he has like a figure 4 on Juice's legs, bending him inside at his waist, and at the end, with no limbs to use, Juice has to verbally submit to Sabre.

I've joked around that Juice will have to defend his title in a battle royal, but given this performance, I'm not sure how Sabre doesn't actually get a proper title shot and potentially win the title.

G1 Climax Block B Match
Tomohiro Ishii (4) vs Kenny Omega (12) - Fucking 10/10!

I know Omega's nickname is 'The Best Bout Machine', but after Ishii vs Goto, Ishii vs Ibushi, and now Ishii vs Omega, I think that moniker now goes to Ishii. This was two tornadoes clashing in the middle of the ring and putting on a classic. This was the best G1 match so far.

Match started with Kenny pushing Ishii's buttons a lot, he kept slapping him and working over him, mostly the neck/head area. Ishii started to make a slow comeback with his striking game, but after a bad powerslam attempt, Kenny hit the Terminator Dive to even out things.

Inside the ring, they started trading off a bunch of moves, Ishii was hitting a bunch of lariats, Germans, and he started chasing the Brainbuster. On the other hand, Omega hit a Kotaro Krusher, some snapranas, he started hitting a ton of V-Triggers, and chasing the One Winged Angel. We're already getting tons of near falls at this point.

Omega started hitting a bunch of Kamigoye style Triggers, but Ishii started doing his "i'm immune to your offense" comeback, takes out Omega with a powerbomb, and now Ishii collapses. Awesome selling.

They kept hitting each other with everything, at this point towards the end, Ishii has his mouth busted open, and after a HELL of a lariat, making Stan Hansen proud, Omega's mouth straight up exploded into blood.

More near falls, and at the end, Omega lands a Brainbuster of his own for a one-count and the crowd goes crazy. Omega goes for another Trigger, but Ishii hits some lariats, vertical drop Brainbuster, and picks of the win and Omega's first loss in the tournament.

Fucking. Awesome. Match.

G1 Climax Block B Match
Tetsuya Naito (10) vs Kota Ibushi (8) - 9/10

I can only imagine Ibushi and Naito, waiting at Japanese gorilla, looking at the monitor, cursing the living shit out of Ishii and Omega because they now have to follow that match.

Given the previous match, this one had some trouble getting the crowd going, but by the end, they were again all going crazy. Naito worked over Ibushi's leg as he had started on their tag match teaser. Just like Naito perfectly targeted all his offense to Juice's hand during their match, Naito was now modifying his usual moves into attacking Ibushi's leg. Ibushi's offense consisted of hitting all his greatest hits and just trying to break Naito's heads, which he kinda came close to doing on several occasions (see Second Rope Dead-lift German).

Towards the end both men are chasing Destino and Kamigoye respectively. Finish saw Ibushi hit the Last Ride for a near fall, they reversed Kamigoye and Destino a bit, Naito landing one for a near fall, but at the end, it was Ibushi hitting Naito with a Side Suplex, Bomaye, and Kamigoye for the win. This was a great match, in any other show, this be the match of the night, but it had to follow Omega vs Ishii and watching them back to back, it was just hard coming down from the ecstasy.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

It's Block B, it delivered, awesome show with one specific amazing match. We're past that middle slum heading into the Block finals, so tonight was a big deal for last minute upsets and setting up points for the finals.