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Csonka’s NJPW G1 Climax Day 13 Review

August 8, 2015 | Posted by Larry Csonka
7.5
The 411 Rating
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Csonka’s NJPW G1 Climax Day 13 Review  

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NJPW G1 Climax Day 12 8.08.15 (Yokohama Cultural Gymnasium in Yokohama)

OFFICIAL RESULTS
* Block A Match: Bad Luck Fale defeated Kota Ibushi @ 8:30 via pin [**¼]
* Block A Match: Tetsuya Naito defeated Toru Yano @ 8:00 via pin [**]
* Block A Match: AJ Styles defeated Hiroyoshi Tenzan @ 13:30 via submission [***½]
* Block A Match: Togi Makabe defeated Doc Gallows @ 8:50 via pin [**½]
* Block A Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated Katsuyori Shibata @ 21:20 via pin [****¾]


* Disclaimer I will be doing what I did with the Best of the Super Juniors tournament, I will just be reviewing the tournament matches from each day. They are what matters, and I don’t worry about burning out.

Bad Luck Fale defeated Kota Ibushi: The more I watch Bad Luck Fale matches, the more I appreciate the work of Tanahashi, Okada and Nakamura in making him look like a capable pro wrestler. Ibushi took the fight to the bigger man, as they brawled on the floor and tossed him into the chairs, used a barricade and connected with a big moonsault. I loved the fire from Ibushi here; he has been excellent in the tournament. And then Fale took over, and it basically died a slow death. Fale won with the Bad Luck Fall, and has one of the better records in the tournament, which is a crying shame. Ibushi tried.

Tetsuya Naito defeated Toru Yano: Ina way this was one of those “more of an angle than a match” matches, where Naito dominated and bullied the ref. Yano had some moments, trying his shenanigans and such, but Naito then out Yano’d Yano and hit two low blows, and finally finished him off with the Destino. Give no fucks Naito is a lot of fun, but there wasn’t much to this.

AJ Styles defeated Hiroyoshi Tenzan: Zombie Tenzan didn’t quite pull out a magical performance, but in combination with AJ Styles they had a good match here. They told a rock solid story, where AJ was trying to break down the bigger man, and work his legs for the calf slicer, while Tenzan played the veteran role well constantly countering AJ and stayed alive. They worked the exact match that they needed to here, and this was another match that showed off the skills of AJ Styles, as he completely worked to any and all strengths of his opponent to get the best match possible. AJ survived the anaconda vice, and then scored the submission victory with the calf slicer. Again, I love that because we’re establishing multiple-finishers, which will be great down the line in a bigger match. These are the kinds of matches that make you understand how much AJ has matured as a performer.

Togi Makabe defeated Doc Gallows: This was an ok, Doc Gallows match. I guess the good news is that it didn’t such, but it did very little for me. We had lots of brawling and Gallows controlling, and then Makabe kicked out of the Gallows poll. This led to the big comeback, lariat and King Kong knee drop and Makabe scored the win. It was what it was, but the right guy won.

Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated Katsuyori Shibata: Outside of Styles vs. Tenzan, this was been a show. There was nothing horrible or anything like that, but also nothing that great. And then we came to the main event, and Tanahashi and Shibata came out to not only present a main event caliber match, but they tried to put on an absolute classic. I loved all of this. They got the time to do their work and tell their story, they had an invested crowd and maybe even more than their 2014 stuff as this had an extra brutal feel to it. Not only were they battling for tournament points, but also looking to prove who was the better man. The story was recently retold on the AXS TV show as they went through last year’s G1. The match had a great build in intensity through out, stiff work, Shibata STOMPING on Tanahashi’s face at one point and this just FELT like an important match, a match that you had to see or you would truly be missing something. Some wrestlers have good chemistry, and then there are guys like this that seem to be holding the same pen as they write the same page of the same book. They did some excellent teases for the finish, with Shibata countering a second high fly flow and then Tanahashi avoiding the PK. The finish was slick and was a great set up for a future match as Tanahashi went for a bridging pin, and then Shibata turned that into a rear naked choke. Tanahashi went Bret Hart and countered that into the pin out of nowhere. This fucking ruled and was everything I could hope for.

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BLOCK A
– Tetsuya Naito – 10 POINTS [5 wins, 2 losses]
– Bad Luck Fale – 10 POINTS [5 wins, 2 losses]
– AJ Styles – 10 POINTS [5 wins, 2 losses]
– Hiroshi Tanahashi – 10 POINTS [5 wins, 2 losses]
– Katsuyori Shibata – 8 POINTS [4 wins, 3 losses]
– Kota Ibushi – 6 POINTS [3 wins, 4 losses]
– Togi Makabe – 8 POINTS [4 wins, 3 losses]
– Toru Yano – 4 points [2 win, 5 losses]
– Hiroyoshi Tenzan – 2 POINTS [1 win, 6 losses]
– Doc Gallows – 2 POINTS [1 win, 6 losses]

– End scene.

– Thanks for reading.

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“I’m out…”

7.5
The final score: review Good
The 411
Make time for Tenzan vs. Styles, and then the excellent main event. The rest you can skip.
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