Puro Fury: G1 Climax 26 Day 5

NJPW G1 Climax 26 Day 5

 

July 25 2016

 

We’re in Fukushima, Japan.

 

YOSHI-HASHI vs. David Finlay

This is totally weird. It’s almost as if they’ve forgotten that Tacos is in G1 and have randomly thrown him in against a junior on one of his days off. I don’t remember ever seeing a G1 competitor have a singles match on a day off. It’s a boost for Finlay, getting another singles match on a G1 show. The use of YOSHI-HASHI is bizarre though. I don’t understand it. Especially as he’s already picked up a shoulder injury in the tournament. It’s not like David will go easy on him either, because he wants to shine. YOSHI fights Finlay into his Butterfly Lock to pick up the win. At least it was brisk but HASHI working singles on his day off is madness. YOSHI-HASHI has Nagata tomorrow, if anyone cares. Apparently New Japan aren’t bothered.

Final Rating: **1/4

 

Michael Elgin, KUSHIDA, Ryusuke Taguchi, Tiger Mask IV & Juice Robinson vs. Katsuyori Shibata, Jushin Liger, Manabu Nakanishi, Satoshi Kojima & Yuji Nagata

Elgin has Shibata tomorrow. That will be manly. Their exchanges here are predictably great with Shibata using blunt force to combat Elgin’s sheer power. This is another weirdly booked match where the Dads, who’ve made peace with Shibs, are tagging with him against the juniors. Apparently Liger is one of the Dads for this business, going against his usual partner in Tiger Mask. The juniors pile in using numbers whenever possible and if NJPW is interested in booking Dads vs. juniors I’d be into it. Kojima finishes Juice off with a lariat in a fun little match up. Shibata vs. Elgin should be entertaining on Day 6.

Final Rating: ***

 

Bullet Club (Kenny Omega & Yujiro Takahashi) vs. Tomoaki Honma & Captain New Japan

Kenny has Honma on Day 6. Omega’s latest subtle anti-G1 outburst is “I don’t want to be here”. I don’t know how much ‘shoot’ there is in these comments but the Bullet Club have generally said whatever they want in English and gotten away with it. Captain New Japan tries to see if he has any Jedi powers after watching Great Sasuke wrestle Great Kojika in a Darth Vader mask, presumably. Omega’s disregard for G1 continues with him calling spots, loudly, in English. I like Omega, as a rule, but in his attempts to be different during G1 he’s taking away from his abilities, which is frustrating to watch. Omega’s antics, combined with the general awfulness of Yujiro and CNJ makes this one of the worst matches on the tour. Yujiro pins Captain New Japan. Nobody gives a shit.

Final Rating: *

 

Katsuhiko Nakajima, Toru Yano & Gedo vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (Tetsuya Naito, EVIL & BUSHI)

Nakajima and Yano are both wrestling LIJ members so we’re having a good old-fashioned trios tag. Naito has a flashback and decides to be difficult about getting into the ring; at one point just standing there with his leg cocked like a dog who’s been interrupted while taking a piss. He is a fucking genius. Gedo is in a comedy mood and throws BUSHI out for Yano to do some damage on the floor. Yano misunderstands and rolls him back in. For the second time tonight Gedo is incredulous. Yano tags in and goes to do the “Break” business but Naito completely no sells it and refuses to go anywhere near him. Yano is left yelling “OOOOOHHHHHHHHH” while Naito just poses and rolls around in front of him. If Japan had holiday camps this is the kind of action you would see at them. I mean that in the most complementary way possible. Sometimes you just need to have a laugh. If you can get away with just doing goofy shit then more power to you (that includes Omega). You still get paid the same and extend the life of your knees by a decade. Not only is this match more fun than the last, it also benefits from Nakajima and EVIL deciding to not mess around at all. Their match on Day 6 is going to be all business. This is probably my favourite undercard match from the tournament so far. LIJ have a habit of rocking the trios matches. MX puts Gedo away and much fun is had by all.

Final Rating: ***1/2

 

The second half of this show is all Block A matches in the G1 Climax.

 

Bad Luck Fale [2] vs. Tomohiro Ishii [0]

Ishii is one of three men blanked so far, much to my disgust. Every year I have a vague hope that Ishii will win, or perhaps make the final, or even be in the key match on the last day with a shot of winning. Instead he’s out here losing to bastard Goto. Ishii’s last Block match is against Makabe, so if Togi keeps on winning Ishii could matter at the end of this tournament. Fale is a tricky devil because he can win, or lose, against anyone due to his imposing size. Ishii does magical work in telling the size difference story. He valiantly goes after Fale but gets shut down at every turn. Ishii has to work for every inch of progress and for every foot forward he places, Fale knocks him two back. The story is better than the work but it’s a solid enough story that they get by on clubbering and the David Vs. Goliath approach. Ishii takes a Grenade but, unlike Marufuji, he stays alive. The suggestion being that while Marufuji is a strong wrestler, Ishii has far more resolve. He doesn’t have many ideas but his aim to simply batter Fale into defeat is a war of attrition. When he drops Fale with the brainbuster, there is no doubt the match is over. Everything built up to that spot and Ishii’s old shoulder injury looked to make it a tough spot to hit clean. That matters not because Ishii is off and running in the tournament.

Final Rating: ***

 

SANADA [2] vs. Togi Makabe [4]

It’s the battle of guys who’ve beaten Tanahashi. A rarity in any G1 but on the third round of Block A competition it’s a once in a lifetime occurrence. Makabe has been scouting SANADA and catches him cold twice in the early going. If SANADA had any facial expressions he might look surprised. SANADA must have been reading my reviews because he actually uses his baseball bat as a weapon in this match, instead of the cool looking prop it usually exists as. SANADA is going to have to learn strikes if he’s to succeed in New Japan. Makabe has the worst strikes of anyone in the company and even he has a mean lariat. SANADA’s stomps look seriously weak by comparison. At least SANADA has nothing as bad as Togi’s punches. SANADA’s hair takes a thrashing from those. Is Togi’s gimmick that he’s really jealous of everyone else’s hair? Seeing as his own looks like a Brillo pad. SANADA struggles to get going and Makabe takes advantage of his funk by despatching him with the Spider German followed by the King Kong Kneedrop. Togi goes 3-0.

Final Rating: **1/2

 

Naomichi Marufuji [2] vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan [4]

Tenzan’s ‘final run’ started off great against Ishii but lost steam slightly in a terrible match with Tama. The crowd popped his win though, so they’re still on board for the story. Marufuji immediately demonstrates his speed advantage, which isn’t a shock, but also his savvy in avoiding a Tenzan shortcut. The crowd are really into the Mongolian Chops, which is always a good sign. I love the “sshhhh” noise. When the crowd gets really into them it sounds like rain. Marufuji’s response is a series of brutal chops. How does he get so much volume on those? Fale is still red-chested from the assault a few days ago and Takashi Sugiura may never recover! Poor Tenzan gets busted open from them, Sugiura style. That’s just too harsh! My skin feels sore just watching. Is sympathy skin a medical condition? Marufuji keeps going, the sick bastard, and my support for Tenzan rises with each vicious connection. Tenzan, already with fucked up chest skin, even instigates some chop duels, the absolute maniac. My favourite strike spot is when Marufuji goes after Ko-Oh and Tenzan headbutts him in the knee. Which is basically the completion of the move but Tenzan’s massive Easter Island napper does effective damage. Striking Tenzan in the head isn’t the best of ploys anyway because it looks like granite. Marufuji evades the Kojima lariat and hits the Shiranui to move onto four points. This was great and the Tenzan story will roll on regardless of how many wins he gets.

Final Rating: ****

 

Tama Tonga [0] vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi [0]

Both guys have been blanked so far but someone must score points tonight! It’s unlikely to be Tama who enters to the usual deafening silence followed by polite applause. The biggest concern regarding Tama is not his crowd reaction but rather his own apparent apathy towards a tournament he must have begged to be a part of. Further to that concern, Tama seems to have a total lack of concern for Tanahashi’s wellbeing, hurling him onto the guardrail with no care to the landing. On top of that he brings that piece of shit Yujiro with him and Takahashi interferes. If Tama is attempting to become the worst wrestler in the history of the G1 he’s well on course to achieving that goal. His presence in this tournament is increasingly looking like a waste of a spot. Tama finally starts to look motivated after a protracted control segment. His attempts to finish Tana off are genuinely solid and they do some nice back and forth after that. The match finally coming to life after ten dreary minutes. Then it’s suddenly over with Tanahashi eating knees on a High Fly Flow and Tama immediately capitalising with Gun Stun, a finisher borrowed from WWE superstar Karl Anderson, and getting the shock pin. The crowd are immediately stunned into silence. Silence is generally not a good reaction, even in Japan. This was a pretty dull match until the last couple of minutes. Tanahashi’s story is far more important than anything Tonga brought to the dance. He’s now in the hole at 0-3. Don’t worry Tana, this is the bottom. It can’t get any worse than this.

Final Rating: **

 

Hirooki Goto [4] vs. Kazuchika Okada [2]

Goto’s video is still him getting beaten by Okada, which is both funny and a sign of how big a failure Goto is. In mentally previewing tonight’s card I looked at this and thought “it’ll probably be the main event but there’s no way Goto is beating Okada”. How many times can they beat that dead horse? Goto’s last title shot at Okada was one of the most disappointing singles matches I’ve seen in years. Goto’s lack of energy, drive and determination to be different was shocking to me. Especially after coming out dressed like Hakushi. This match is sadly more of the same. Same old Goto. Before 2016 an Okada-Goto match was guaranteed to be good. It’s as if Goto is wallowing in his own funk nowadays. Aware he’ll never amount to anything and content to be second banana to an actual star. Seeing as this is the main event of a G1 show my interest levels are shocking low. Especially seeing as it’s Okada, who’s one of my favourite guys. Goto has become this anti-energy sucker of entertainment and I liked him fine before this most recent run! As Shibata’s mate he was good. Now his match quality has dropped off and I just don’t care anymore. Sorry. Okada busts a gut when he realises Goto is being Goto but by then it’s too late. I don’t even know how you rehab Goto from here, short of actually booking him to win something important and demand good matches in the process! The last five minutes or so of this match is really strong because they have fantastic chemistry but for some reason the first half of the match is a complete drag. Goto tries to hit his shitty new finisher but doesn’t and Okada beats him with the Rainmaker. Again.

Final Rating: ***1/2

7.0

The final score: review Good

The 411

It’s a big night for Okada as he edges further away from his main rival in this Block, Tanahashi, and only Makabe is ahead of him at this point. Togi isn’t winning the whole thing so Okada is in the driving seat to win the G1 as champion. He has a defence against Marufuji lined up if he does. This was a passable show and again Tenzan was the highlight. His ‘final G1’ storyline is a killer. He’s struggled through the last couple but this one feels special.