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Csonka’s NJPW G1 Climax (Night 16) Review 8.08.17
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Csonka’s G1 Climax (Night 16) Review 8.08.17
OFFICIAL RESULTS
– Block B Match: Tama Tonga defeated Satoshi Kojima @ 10:32 via pin [***]
– Block B Match: Juice Robinson defeated Toru Yano @ 4:16 via pin [**]
– Block B Match: Michael Elgin defeated EVIL @ 11:25 via pin [***½]
– Block B Match: Kenny Omega defeated SANADA @ 15:03 via pin [***½]
– Block B Match: Kazuchika Okada vs. Minoru Suzuki ended in a time limit draw @ 30:00 [****¾]
* NOTE: Like in past G1s and the BOTSJ, I will be focusing on the tournament matches only. Due to that, the final score for the show is only based on those matches.
– Follow all of my reviews at this link.
– You can watch the shows with a subscription to New Japan World.
Satoshi Kojima vs. Tama Tonga: Tonga continues his recent cosplay obsession, attacking Kojima before the bell and then putting his robe on and stealing his moves. The good brother is either cold or really wants a cool robe of his own. Kojima battles back, sends him to the floor but misses the slingshot plancha. Tonga maintains control, slamming Kojima to the apron and barricades. Tonga mocks Tenzan by doing Mongolian chops on Kojima, Kojima fires up and starts to mount his comeback. He hits the rapid-fire corner chops, the running forearm strike, and heads up top but Tonga cuts off the elbow drop, hitting a flapjack variation. The neck breaker follows for 2. Kojima battles back, hitting the kojicutter and then sends Tonga to the floor. Instead of taking a countout win, Kojima brings Tonga in, hits a brainbuster and covers for 2. Tonga does his misdirection spot to counter the lariat, and hits a neck breaker for 2. Kojima battles back, finally hitting and after a delay, covering for 2. The emerald flowsion follows, but Tonga again kicks out. Tonga avoids the lariat, and hits the gun stun for the win. Tama Tonga defeated Satoshi Kojima @ 10:32 via pin [***] This was a good back and forth match, with Tonga showing more personality than ever these days and making for a lot of fun in his matches. I thought this may be one Kojima pulls out, but Tonga was just too much for him at the end of the day.
Juice Robinson vs. Toru Yano: Yano goes after the buckle pad right away, but Juice cuts him off so he runs and hides under the ring. Juice chases him under the ring, we hear bumping and yelling and they then beat the count back in. They brawl to the floor, Yano ties Juice’s dreads to the barricade for a countout tease, but Juice unties himself. Yano removes the buckle pad and Juice posts himself, and he then attacks the knee that everyone has attacked all tour. Juice fights back, avoids the first low blow, but Yano gets the mule kick. Juice survives, hits pulp friction and picks up the win. Juice Robinson defeated Toru Yano @ 4:16 via pin [**] Short, fun and most importantly Juice won.
EVIL vs. Michael Elgin: EVIL attacks before the bell because he’s… EVIL. Large Michael immediately cuts him off, hitting the slingshot splash; EVIL bailed to the floor and then pulled Elgin out with him for some floor brawling. They worked back into the ring, working back and forth in an evenly laid out match to far. EVIL up top, Elgin looks to cut him off, but EVIL sends him back to the mat. EVIL leaps into the ring, but Elgin counters and does the deal, hitting the falcon arrow for 2. EVIL counters the powerbomb, and slips into a fisherman’s buster for the double down. They fire up, trade lariats and EVIL hits darkness falls for a near fall. Elgin digs deep, hitting the rolling forearm and German to cut off EVIL. Elgin then hits a series of corner clotheslines, takes EVIL up top and they go all the way up and Elgin hits the big superplex for 2. Elgin hits the buckle bomb, EVIL fires up and they work into an intense counter sequence, and Elgin hits the sit out powerbomb for a great near fall. Big lariat from big Mike and the Elgin bomb finishes EVIL. Michael Elgin defeated EVIL @ 11:25 via pin [***½] This was a very good, and hard-hitting match with an excellent final homestretch that really sent it home in a big way. I’d love to see more from these two, maybe a NEVER title feud down the line would be a ton of fun. I know it’s the nature of the tournament booking, and EVIL had to lose to get some separation in the standings, but I hate seeing him lose right after the big win over Okada.
Kenny Omega vs. SANADA: They talk some shit to begin, Omega is obviously jealous of SANADA’s hair. SANADA looks to pick up the pace, they both tease their finishers early but both counter out. SANADA hits the dragon screw and sends Omega to the floor, he follows and they brawl. Omega almost kills himself doing a moonsault off of the railing, not rotating enough and landing on his head.
OH, SHIIIIIIIIT #NJPW #G127 pic.twitter.com/uq1aisLf0x
— LARIATOOOO!!! (@MrLARIATO) August 8, 2017
They work back into the ring and Omega looks ok as he takes control. Omega cuts off the springboard attempt, snatches him up and hits the Finlay roll and follows with the moonsault for 2. They trade strikes, and Omega rakes the eyes, but SANADA hits a dropkick, sends him to the floor and follows with a plancha. Back in and SANADA puts Omega in the paradise lock and dropkicks him in the ass, covering for 2. Omega looks for the snapdragon suplex, SANADA escapes and fires back but misses the standing moonsault. Omega follows with the neck breaker across the knee, and hits V trigger, but SANADA counters the one winged angel with a RANA and then follows with a TKO. SANADA hits the back breaker but Omega avoids the moonsault. Skull end by SANADA, and he drags Omega to the mat. Omega fights, makes the ropes and SANADA misses the moonsault. Omega hits the snapdragon, follows with a V trigger and covers for 2. They trade chops center ring, SANADA follows with uppercuts, but Omega cuts him off with another V trigger. SANADA avoids the German, locks in skull end, but Omega rolls out and then hercs SANADA up into the one winged angel for the win. Kenny Omega defeated SANADA @ 15:03 via pin [***½] This was another very good match, with some really fun back and forth action. SANADA was game, but Omega was able to stay a step ahead, and pulls out the win to make Saturday’s match with Okada even more important.
Kazuchika Okada vs. Minoru Suzuki: Desperado & Taichi are out with Suzuki, Gedo is out with Okada. Okada takes early control, avoiding the attacks of Suzuki and sending him to the floor. Okada follows, working him over and gets jumped by Taichi and Desperado. Gedo is a shit friend and Okada has to fight them off by himself. The young lions, who routinely get their asses kicked by Suzuki, drag Desperado and Taichi to the back. In the ring, they trade strikes and Suzuki looks to be in a rather surly mood, as usual. He starts to target the neck of Okada, which is taped up. He rips that off and it’s game on for the most pissed off man on the planet. Suzuki takes things to the floor, and uses a chair to work over Okada, Red shoes actually remembers his job and stops him, taking the chair away. Back in the ring and Suzuki lays in hard kicks to the chest of Okada and follows with forearm strikes. Okada cuts him off with a neck breaker, fires up with strikes, the DDT and running uppercut for 2. Suzuki then does his wacky crawl over and attacks, Okada blocks the kick and fires up as they trade strikes. Suzuki looks for the sleeper, but Okada counters out into a TKO. The neck breaker across the knee follows, Okada up top and hits the elbow drop. Suzuki fights back, working a hanging guillotine, Okada looks for a tombstone but Suzuki escapes and hits a dropkick to cut off Okada. Okada battles back, hitting a Gotch style tombstone. Suzuki avoids the rainmaker, counters out and he hits a tombstone. Both men are down. Suzuki drags himself up and to his feet, looking generally angry at planet earth. He lays in strikes to the back of Okada’s neck and then works a neck crank submission. He then transitions to a head scissors, but Okada makes the ropes. Suzuki follows with strikes to the neck, follows with kicks. He avoids the dropkick, hits an enziguri and then locks in the octopus hold. Suzuki now goes for the Gotch piledriver, Okada fights, so Suzuki brutalizes him with strikes until Okada hits the desperation dropkick. Okada heads up top, hits the missile dropkick. The German follows, but Suzuki counters the rainmaker into the saka otoshi and then transitions into the rear naked choke with the body scissors. Okada just barely makes the ropes. Suzuki now fires up with rapid-fire strikes, follows with slaps and Okada is down. Suzuki shoves the ref away so he can attack but Okada hits the desperation rainmaker. He hangs onto the wrist and drags Suzuki back up and hits another. Final five-minutes of the 30-minute time limit now, and Okada covers for 2, but Suzuki barely kicked out. Okada drags him up, but Suzuki fires up again with slaps and strikes. Okada is rocked, he tries to fire back and both guys are fired the fuck up. Three-minutes left as they continue to trade, Suzuki now puts his hands behind his back and dares Okada to attack and just absorbs the strikes. Suzuki desperately tries for the Gotch piledriver, Okada fights it off and they continue to trade. Okada fires up, and hits a rainmaker and both are down. It’s shades of the Omega match as he crawls to cover as the time expires but he runs out of time. Kazuchika Okada vs. Minoru Suzuki ended in a time limit draw @ 30:00 [****¾] This was an absolutely great match, there was no fucking around, it was all action, all drama and the final five minutes were simply spectacular. Everything that people didn’t like about their first match earlier this year, they did the opposite of that and just waged war in the ring, with Suzuki more than willing to kick the shit out of Okada; to his credit Okada survived the brutal onslaught of Suzuki, but as it has been discussed many times before and during this tournament, Okada is slowly breaking down, the wars and long title defenses are breaking him down. He lost to EVIL, he didn’t have enough here to put Suzuki away and now has to face off with a man in Kenny Omega that he’s battled for over 100-minutes in two matches so far this year. The tie is important, because Omega HAS to beat Okada to win the block, Okada doesn’t have to beat him. The visuals in the final few minutes, the two men trading strikes, sweat flying, the crowd getting more and more invested was a great culmination to the match.
Okada is gonna die #G127 #NJPW #NJPWWORLD pic.twitter.com/kwY9c7UmD6
— Italo Santana (@BulletClubItal) August 8, 2017
#g127 B block
1/Okada 13
2/Omega 12
————–
3/EVIL 10
4/Suzuki 9
5/Elgin SANADA 8
6/Tonga Yano Juice 6
10/Kojima 2— chris charlton (@reasonjp) August 8, 2017
BLOCK B STANDINGS
– Kazuchika Okada: 6-1-1 (13pts.)
– Kenny Omega: 6-2 (12pts.)
ELIMINATED
– EVIL: 5-3 (10pts.)
– Minoru Suzuki: 4-3-1 (9pts.)
– SANADA: 4-4 (8pts.)
– Michael Elgin: 4-4 (8pts.)
– Tama Tonga: 3-5 (6pts.)
– Juice Robinson: 3-5 (6pts.)
– Toru Yano: 3-5 (6pts.)
– Satoshi Kojima: 1-7 (2pts.)
– End scene.
– Thanks for reading.
【¡VIVA LA VIDA!】#髙橋ダリル#TakahashiDaryl#カレハシナナイエイエンノイノチ #D pic.twitter.com/n6UHd3TiWy
— TIME BOMB 髙橋ヒロム (@TIMEBOMB1105) August 7, 2017
As proof to you that there is in fact a God, I present to you the resurrection of Daryl Takahashi; for the lord looked upon his son, after he brought him back, and his son said, “The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he, who in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother’s keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee… AND WHEN I FIND YOU BAD LUCK FALE YOU WILL BE THUSLY FUCKED!”
