NJPW G1 Climax 23: Day 5
NJPW G1 Climax 23: Day 5 (8/6/2013)- Ishikawa, Japan
BLOCK A: Tomohiro Ishii vs. Satoshi Kojima- 6.75/10
Both guys work over the other guys head pretty much the entire match. I’m not even sure that there was a single maneuver or strike here that didn’t target the head. Ishii did a pretty good superman comeback for a bit, too.
BLOCK B: Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Toru Yano- 5/10
BLOCK A: Lance Archer vs. Katsuyori Shibata- 6/10
Much better than a normal Shibata match. He actually sold here!
BLOCK B: Shelton Benjamin vs. Tetsuya Naito- 6/10
Shelton locks Naito in the ankle lock (one of his finishers) for quite a while in the beginning of the match. They never went back to the leg again, and Naito never sold it. You’d think selling a leg would be natural to guy who spent eight months on the shelf with a leg injury, but he never seems to sell his leg when someone works it over.
BLOCK B: Minoru Suzuki vs. Karl â€"Machine Gun†Anderson-7/10
Suzuki worked over Anderson’s arm for most of the match, then switched to working over his head and neck about three quarters of the way through. Otherwise a great match.
BLOCK B: Kota Ibushi vs. Yugi Nagata- 7/10
BLOCK B: Yoshihiro Takahashi vs. Shinsuke Nakamura- 6.75/10
BLOCK A: Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Kazuchika Okada- 7/10
BLOCK A: Hirooki Goto vs. Prince Devitt (w/Bad Luck Fale)- 6/10
Lots of heel shenanigans here. I would have rated this a bit higher, but there were so many heel shenanigans that Goto barely got any offense in, and as a result, him pinning Devitt with just one move made Devitt look like a total, chump in comparison to Goto, who kicked out of Devitt’s double-stop finisher with a chair on his chest… and that was after getting hit with multiple charshots to the stomach and back.
BLOCK A: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Togi Makabe- 7.5/10
Tanahashi works over Makabe’s injured ribs, Makabe works over Tanahashi’s head. They have a great match.
Overall, a very good show from New Japan. Lots of good-to-great wrestling and nothing bad, but nothing was really worth going out of your way to see, either.
BLOCK A: Tomohiro Ishii vs. Satoshi Kojima- 6.75/10
Both guys work over the other guys head pretty much the entire match. I’m not even sure that there was a single maneuver or strike here that didn’t target the head. Ishii did a pretty good superman comeback for a bit, too.
BLOCK B: Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Toru Yano- 5/10
BLOCK A: Lance Archer vs. Katsuyori Shibata- 6/10
Much better than a normal Shibata match. He actually sold here!
BLOCK B: Shelton Benjamin vs. Tetsuya Naito- 6/10
Shelton locks Naito in the ankle lock (one of his finishers) for quite a while in the beginning of the match. They never went back to the leg again, and Naito never sold it. You’d think selling a leg would be natural to guy who spent eight months on the shelf with a leg injury, but he never seems to sell his leg when someone works it over.
BLOCK B: Minoru Suzuki vs. Karl â€"Machine Gun†Anderson-7/10
Suzuki worked over Anderson’s arm for most of the match, then switched to working over his head and neck about three quarters of the way through. Otherwise a great match.
BLOCK B: Kota Ibushi vs. Yugi Nagata- 7/10
BLOCK B: Yoshihiro Takahashi vs. Shinsuke Nakamura- 6.75/10
BLOCK A: Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Kazuchika Okada- 7/10
BLOCK A: Hirooki Goto vs. Prince Devitt (w/Bad Luck Fale)- 6/10
Lots of heel shenanigans here. I would have rated this a bit higher, but there were so many heel shenanigans that Goto barely got any offense in, and as a result, him pinning Devitt with just one move made Devitt look like a total, chump in comparison to Goto, who kicked out of Devitt’s double-stop finisher with a chair on his chest… and that was after getting hit with multiple charshots to the stomach and back.
BLOCK A: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Togi Makabe- 7.5/10
Tanahashi works over Makabe’s injured ribs, Makabe works over Tanahashi’s head. They have a great match.
Overall, a very good show from New Japan. Lots of good-to-great wrestling and nothing bad, but nothing was really worth going out of your way to see, either.