NJPW G1 Climax 29: Day 15

TORU YANO, YOTA TSUJI, & YUYA UEMURA vs. SUZUKI-GUN (Minoru Suzuki, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, & Taichi) - 2.5/10

Usual Suzuki-Gun stupidity plus usual Yano stupidity. The only good part of this was Kanemaru vs. the young-boys.

JON MOXLEY & SHOTA UMINO vs. CHAOS (YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto) - 4.5/10

JUICE ROBINSON, TOA HENARE, & TOMOAKI HONMA vs. BULLET CLUB (Chase Owens, Yujiro Takahashi, & Jay White) (w/Gedo) - 5.5/10

They lasted a bit longer than usual before the spilling to the outside for the usual bullsh*t. It did eventually get good, though.

JEFF COBB, REN NARITA, & TOMOHIRO ISHII vs. LOS INGOBERNABLES DE JAPON (Tetsuya Naito, Shingo Takagi, & BUSHI) - 6/10

Naito attacked Cobb's leg in a very heelish manner after the match.

BLOCK A MATCH:
Lance Archer vs. Sanada - 4.5/10

Archer jumped Sanada on the ramp but Sanada took over when they got back into the ring. Archer once again took over with a senton body block off the apron and we got more whipping Sanada into barricades before Archer brought him back into the ring. We then got a few minutes of the boring, pointless Suzuki-Gun heat with the choking and the standing on the opponent and the pushing the referee around. Just boring sh*t that does nothing but kill time instead of actually contributing to the story of the match. This match was basically them coming up with a good two or three finishing minutes of countering each other's big moves, and decided that they would just waste time until they got to that point.

BLOCK A MATCH:
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Bad Luck Fale (w/Chase Owens & Jado) - 5.75/10

Tanahashi was very careful about keeping an eye on Fale to make sure that Fale didn't jump him during his entrance… for the first turnbuckle. After that he stopped checking for Fale, who proceeded to push him off the next turnbuckle he climbed up. I don't care that he skinned the cat and got an advantage on Fale who had cockily turned around like HBK and the British Bulldog at the end of the 95 Royal Rumble. Tanahashi still looked like an idiot for dropping his guard and falling victim to a maneuver he had been vigilantly defending again just moments earlier.

Tanahashi's advantage was immediately erased by a Kendo stick shot to the back by Jado and then Owens stomping on Tanahashi while Fale mugs the referee without punishment. I've seen this in just about every Fale match this tournament. I really don't feel like watching it yet again. Props to these guys for taking the match in a different direction than usual with the work on the knees, but it doesn't make it any less frustrating to see all of these matches start the same way. When you're doing a long round-robin tournament, making the matches feel different is essential, and NJPW has completely failed at that this year.

BLOCK A MATCH:
Will Ospreay vs. KENTA - 8.25/10

After a good start they wound up on the outside for almost two whole minutes without getting counted out. While they were out there KENTA whipped Ospreay into several barricades, gave him a bodyslam on the floor, and kicked him in the back a few times, so at least they used that time to build up a story rather than just to waste time. Then they abandoned that story and had KENTA work over Ospreay's injured neck instead. They did a great job with that, story, too, but based on the insanely high level these two have performed at throughout this tournament, this did feel a little disappointing.

BLOCK A MATCH:
Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Kota Ibushi - 8.75/10

Because of Gedo's poor booking of this tournament, we entered into today in a situation where only Okada and Ibushi still have a chance of winning this block, and only if Ibushi at least keeps pace with Okada. Basically, if Ibushi loses here, it spoils the main event, and if Ibushi wins here, whatever Okada does in the main event doesn't matter because no matter what happens, the tournament will be won by whoever wins the Ibushi vs. Okada match on the final day of block competition.

These two had yet another AWESOME match together. The story of this one was Zack working the legs and looking to lock in Orienteering With Napalm Death. These two are so damn great together.

BLOCK A MATCH:
Kazuchika Okada vs. EVIL - 8.5/10

They both worked the head and neck and had a great brawl. It would have been better if Red Shoes had actually counted them out when he should have and if EVIL hadn't hit Okada with several chairs in front of the referee with no DQ. They're way overdoing the "double-down after a lariat or Rainmaker with Okada maintaining his hold on the wrist spot. Okada's execution of it has started to feel very contrived as well.

Final Thoughts
Another great show from Block A, despite the underwhelming start. Tomorrow we're back to Block B. Uch.