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Csonka’s NJPW G1 Climax 28 Night 3 Review

July 16, 2018 | Posted by Larry Csonka
NJPW G1 Climax 28 Night 3
7.1
The 411 Rating
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Csonka’s NJPW G1 Climax 28 Night 3 Review  

Csonka’s NJPW G1 Climax 28 Night 3 Review

OFFICIAL RESULTS
A Block Match: Michael Elgin defeated Hangman Page @ 17:17 via pin [***¾]
A Block Match: EVIL defeated YOSHI-HASHI @ 12:35 via pin [**¾]
A Block Match: Togi Makabe defeated Minoru Suzuki @ 15:01 via pin [***¼]
A Block Match: Bad Luck Fale defeated Kazuchika Okada @ 13:20 via pin [**½]
A Block Match: Jay White defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi @ 24:01 via pin [***½]


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Night One Review
Night Two Review

A Block Match: Michael Elgin vs. Hangman Page: Page has a killer spaghetti western style theme that sounds like it belongs in a Tarantino film. Elgin is 3-0 all time against Page, all took place in ROH. They trade strikes and chops to begin until Elgin dropkicks Page to the floor and follows with a suicide dive. They work to the apron and Page hits a neck breaker and follows with the shooting star press to the floor, Back in the ring and Page hits a running shooting star press for 2. Page lays in chops, hits a dropkick and then catapults him into the bottom rope for 2. Page grounds the action for a bit, but Elgin fights to his feet and the sitout powerbomb follows for 2. Elgin now starts to lay in big strikes and clotheslines. Page answers back, hits a superkick and German for 2. Elgin now cuts him off and hits an XPLODER. He follows with corner clotheslines and chops. Elgin takes him up top and follows. Page fights, rakes his eyes, but Elgin hits a slingshot cutter and big ending for 2. Page tries to fight off the powerbomb, so Elgin lights him up with strikes, and they trade several pin attempts. Page counters out of a German, and hits jig’n tonic connects for a really good near fall. Elgin to the floor, Page follows and heads up top. Elgin back in and cuts him off. They both work up top and Elgin tosses him to the mat. Page pops back up and follows him back up, the RANA is cut off but Page fights and hits it anyway and follows with a dropkick. Back up top and Page hits the neck breaker off the ropes for a great near fall. The crowd is behind Page here, he looks for rite of passage; Elgin escapes and connects with a series of kicks. They trade strikes center ring now, Elgin rips off his elbow pad and starts lighting up Page. Page cuts him off and they trade Germans. Elgin now hits a Tiger suplex page fights back and is sent to the apron and Elgin counters the buck shot lariat, and hits a lariat and hits splash mountain for a great near fall. Elgin sets, buckle bomb, tiger bomb, and the Elgin bomb finally finishes it. Michael Elgin defeated Hangman Page @ 17:17 via pin [***¾] This was an overall very good back and forth match, with both guys looking good and Page putting in a hell of a performance, looking like he belongs in his spot.

A Block Match: YOSHI-HASHI vs. EVIL: HASHI attacks with strikes, they trade shoulder tackles and HASHI takes him down. He follows with chops, but EVIL dumps him to the floor and follows. He starts attacking the arm, working the taped up shoulder. EVIL grabs chairs and wraps one around HASHI’s head and does the baseball swing with another. HASHI back in and EVIL covers for 2 and immediately attacks the arm. HASHI makes the ropes, tries to fire up with strikes; EVIL cuts him off, but misses the senton. HASHI follows with strikes and chops, and then the running blockbuster. The draping dropkick connects, and HASHI covers for 2. EVIL fires back, attacking the arm, but HASHI counters with a sleeper. EVIL escapes, attacking the arm, and hits darkness falls for 2. EVIL looks for everything is evil, but HASHI counters into a back stabber for the double down. They fight to their feet, trade clotheslines, and HASHI fires up, rips off his shoulder tape and they trade strikes. HASHI then hits a big lariat, and loses EVIL on the powerbomb and they spill to the floor; that looked bad. Back in and HASHI now hits the powerbomb for 2. The butterfly lock follows, EVIL fights, but HASHI traps him center ring. EVIL again fights and makes the ropes. HASHI follows with chops, hits a slam and then heads up top and hits the swanton for 2. EVIL fights off karma, they trade strikes and EVIL is down. The running meteora follows by HASHI for 2. EVIL counters karma and hits a half and half suplex. The lariat follows for 2. Everything is evil finishes it. EVIL defeated YOSHI-HASHI @ 12:35 via pin [**¾] This was pretty good, and had some solid intensity early on, but overall really felt as if it was missing something drama wise to really pull me in.

A Block Match: Togi Makabe vs. Minoru Suzuki: These two had a great match earlier this year; Desperado is out with Suzuki. They brawl at the bell, no fucking around here. Yes boys, feel the hate. They continue to trade and beat the shit out of each other; Suzuki starts laughing at Makabe, which is bad news for him. They just keep throwing, as this resembles a bar fight more than a wrestling match so far. Makabe hits a shoulder tackle and Suzuki rolls to the floor. Makabe follows and they just continue to brawl. Suzuki grabs a chair and Makabe has one as well and they chair fight now. The ref gets bumped on the floor and the fight heads back to the ring. Suzuki gets a chair and lays into Makabe with it. The ref is back, but Suzuki backs him down and pulls Makabe to the floor and slams him to the barricade. More chair shots by Suzuki follows and he shoves down the ref again. Now that’s a bit ridiculous. Suzuki continues to beat on Makabe, he heads back in and Makabe follows. He tries to fire up but Suzuki laughs at him and lights him up with strikes. Makabe fights to his feet, lays in chops and is finally rocking Suzuki. The corner clothesline and mounted strikes follow. Suzuki cuts him off with knee strikes, hits the PK and follows with more strikes. Makabe hits the desperation powerslam. This leads to them trading strikes once again; Suzuki drops Makabe, and then continues to throw elbow strikes. Sleeper by Suzuki, Makabe fades, Suzuki looks for the Gotch but Makabe counters out and into a DVD for the double down. The western lariat follows and then another lariat connects. Makabe takes Suzuki up top, hits the spider Suzuki to his feet but Makabe hits the flying knee, back up top and the king kong knee drop finishes Suzuki. Togi Makabe defeated Minoru Suzuki @ 15:01 via pin [***¼] Stylistically, this was a huge change from the previous matches, and they just beat the shit out of each other. It was overall good and enjoyable as Makabe heads to 2-0 while Suzuki drops to a surprising 0-2. This was similar to the Tanahashi match, where Suzuki dominated prior to losing. The only thing that bothers me is the ref abuse, one bump while wildly brawling I can take, but when you get past that to two or three, it really feels like it should be a DQ. Anyway, I suspect Suzuki will make a pate surge in the standings.

A Block Match: Kazuchika Okada vs. Bad Luck Fale: Loa & Gedo are at ringside. They lock up, work to the ropes and Okada slaps Fale. Fale chases him to the floor, and Okada runs Loa into Fale and then does it again. Okada teases a step up dive and Fale grabs a chair and claims he’s going to fuck up Okada. This takes the ref and allows Loa to powerslam Okada on the floor. Fale follows and attacks, whipping Okada to the barricade. Fale now slams Okada into the chairs. Okada makes it back in, but Fale immediately attacks, and maintains control. Okada fires up but runs into a shoulder tackle for 2. The camel clutch follows, Okada escapes, but Fale stomps away at him. Okada teases a slam, but gets cut off. Fale misses the corner splash and Okada finally hits the slam. Okada connects with running uppercuts and a DDT for 2. Okada up top and jumps over Fale, and then counters the grenade with a dropkick and dumps Fale to the floor. Okada then wipes he and Loa out with a tope. Back in and the top rope elbow drop connects for Okada. Fale counters the rainmaker into a Samoan drop and both men are down. Fale gets to his feet and hits the running splash for 2. Okada fights out of bad luck fall, but Fale hits a big lariat and that gets 2. Fale now heads up top and Okada cuts him off and follows him up. Fale knocks him down, Okada hits a dropkick and press slams Fale off the ropes and to the floor. Okada follows with a missile dropkick and now looks for a tombstone. Fale fights it off, but Okada hits the rainmaker. He hits another and then takes out Loa. The dropkick follows, Okada is fired up, and now dropkicks Fale into he ref, Tama arrives, gun stun on Okada. Fale hits the bad luck fall and picks up the win. Bad Luck Fale defeated Kazuchika Okada @ 13:20 via pin [**½] Broken Okada falls to 0-2 like many predicted. They were having a pretty good match overall until they again resorted to the 2014 Bullet Club booking, which while I can understand the reasoning behind it, already feels tired here in the tournament to me. Okada still is one of the few that gets good stuff out of Fale.

A Block Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Jay White: These two faced off as WrestleKingdom, with Tanahashi coming out on top in a good but disappointing match. On the way to the ring, Jay White tells Rocky Romero, “I’m doing this for us, for a better CHAOS.” They lock up, and Tanahashi looks to work the arm early on. He grounds things, but White pulls the hair and takes him to the corner. He lays in chops, Tanahashi pulls the hair for some payback, but White cuts him off with a running forearm and chops. Tanahashi fires back, hits a shoulder tackle, and follows with a dropkick. Tanahashi now lays in forearm strikes, but White chop blocks him as he looks for a springboard high cross. Nice cut off there. White now focuses on the leg, grounding Tanahashi and covering for 2. White now takes Tanahashi to the apron and continues to attack the knee. He now posts the knee. Back in and White covers but red shoes refuses to count because White was using illegal moves. White works an inverted figure four, but Tanahashi makes the ropes. Tanahashi tries to fight back, but is hobbled. They trade strikes and Tanahashi hits a desperation flying forearm. He follows with more strikes, hits the slam and the senton connects for 2. Tanahashi now hits a dragon screw and White is down. The cloverleaf follows, but White makes the ropes. White now rakes the eyes, but Tanahashi gets a dragon screw in the ropes. They work into a series of counters and White hits a German for the double down. White now lays in chops, taking Tanahashi is down, and White then goes back to the leg. White then dumps Tanahashi on his head with a sleeper suplex. Tanahashi counters blade runner and lays in strikes. White pulls the hair and hits a lariat. White repeatedly slams him to the buckles and Tanahashi rolls to the floor. White follows and hits a Saito suplex. He then slams Tanahashi repeatedly to the barricade. Back in and White hits rolling suplexes. Tanahashi is down and the ref checks on him. The twisting suplex by White follows and he covers for 2. The kiwi krusher follows and that again gets 2. White to the floor, and gets a chair. He brings it in and Tanahashi hits sling blade to cut him off. Tanahashi now gets a chair and White begs off. He then rakes the eyes, and teases a ref bump, low blow by White. White shoves the ref down as he tries to use the chair and Tanahashi hits a low blow in return. Twist and shout connects for Tanahashi and sling blade follows for 2. Tanahashi up top and hits the high fly high cross, White rolls through, but Tanahashi hits a straightjacket German for 2. The crowd is really into this now. White shoves the ref into the ropes as Tanahashi was up top, and Tanahashi gets crotched. White gets the chair and levels Tanahashi. Blade runner connects for the win. Jay White defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi @ 24:01 via pin [***½] As many expected, Jay White goes 2-0, starting off hot and beating two of the biggest stirs in NJPW. In the span of less than six months, Jay White has beaten three of the last five IWGP champions, and is clearly being positioned as someone to watch. The match was very good, and while I completely understand the layout choices that play into White’s character, it comes across as too much when added in with the Bullet Club antics.

G1 BLOCK A


* Jay White: 2-0 (4pts.)
* Michael Elgin: 2-0 (4pts.)
* Togi Makabe: 2-0 (4pts.)
* Adam Page: 1-1 (2pts.)
* Bad Luck Fale: 1-1 (2pts.)
* EVIL: 1-1 (2pts.)
* Hiroshi Tanahashi: 1-1 (2pts.)
* Kazuchika Okada: 0-2 (0pts.)
* Minoru Suzuki: 0-2 (0pts.)
* YOSHI-HASHI: 0-2 (0pts.)

G1 BLOCK B


* Kota Ibushi: 1-0 (2pts.)
* Tomohiro Ishii: 1-0 (2pts.)
* Tama Tonga: 1-0 (2pts.)
* Hirooki Goto: 1-0 (2pts.)
* Kenny Omega: 1-0 (2pts.)
* Tetsuya Naito: 0-1 (0pts.)
* Toru Yano: 0-1 (0pts.)
* Juice Robinson: 0-1 (0pts.)
* SANADA: 0-1 (0pts.)
* Zack Sabre Jr: 0-1 (0pts.)

– End Scene.

– Thanks for reading.

 photo fe36ffd0-0da4-4e3b-a2d3-b026b341dd87_zps41ef5d61.jpg
“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”

7.1
The final score: review Good
The 411
Night three of the NJPW G1 Climax 28 was an overall good show, but easily the weakest of the three shows so far. There was nothing absolutely must-see, but I think that Elgin vs. Page was the best of the bunch if you’re cherry picking.
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