Mathew’s G1 Climax 28 B Block Results & Review: Day 6

Welcome back to B Block! The last time we were here, we had some great matches, except for one of them, but still a great night nonetheless and we got another stacked show today since B Block has been killing it now compared to A Block. Who unfortunately had a rather disappointing night except for Kazuchika Okada and Adam Page, who more than delivered.

For some of these guys, it’s crucial to get a win here in the early stages, but let’s see if they can pull it off and…dive right in.

G1 Climax 2018 Block B Match
Kota Ibushi vs. Toru Yano

Review: Kota is undefeated so far in this block right next to his Golden Lover, Kenny Omega and another win here would give him better odds with a strong start to get a little bit closer to the final round. Toru already has two losses in his record with zero wins and he would need to win here to at least try to stay alive, so he could be the first spoiler for Ibushi if he can pull an upset.

There’s the Toru we all know and love since he’s deciding not to be like how he was in his two previous matches and tries to end hin very quickly with rolling him up every time he kicked out of it to try and throw him off guard and he would eventually fail to do so and decides to untie all the turnbuckle posts as Ibushi hits a Corkscrew Moonsault when Toru wasn’t paying attention. This match was more entertaining with a little bit of comedic humor involved but it was enough to not make it over the top like when Toru and Omega fought last year. Toru would start taping up Ibushi’s hand together thinking he took out most of his arsenal and had the advantage but Ibushi still has his kicks and can still Moonsault perfectly without the need of his hands. Ibushi attempted to choke Toru with his taped hands around his neck and Toru was able to grab the referee to take his place and roll them up to make the referee knocked out before he would hit a low blow and chop blocked his knee so he could roll Ibushi up and Yano would get the surprise victory over Ibushi!

This was honestly the only way you can see Toru defeating someone like Ibushi since you’ll never see him get a clean victory over him and now Toru can spoil Ibushi’s chances first and now you never know when he’s going to do it again.

Recommended: Very entertaining, worth watching

G! Climax 2018 Block B Match
Zack Sabre Jr. vs. SANADA

Review: Both of these men have one win and one loss in their name and right now taking a second loss here with only one win can not really hurt them, but it would put them in a bad spot. Last time they fought, it was at the New Japan Cup Tournament semi-final round as the two would put on an amazing match with Zack getting the victory over him and SANADA showing he can actually outsmart the technical wizard if he’s not careful. Can Zack make him tap out twice or will SANADA get revenge?

Gonna be honest, my favorite style of wrestling has always been technical wrestling ever since I was a kid.  My all time favorite was Bret ‘Hitman’ Hart and some consider it a dying art nowadays since people prefer the high flying style or any of the other stuff, but the United Kingdom still does it beautifully and then you have these two guys that pretty much give you a technical orgasm right here. I loved how SANADA has pretty much done his homework on Zack and was able to outsmart him a lot more than just about anyone else has done in New Japan, he would put him in a Full Nelson and every time Zack would try to counter it, SANADA would just get him back in the hold quite a few times up to the point where you see Zack getting frustrated with the situation since he’s supposed to be this technical genius and this person is just making him look like an idiot compared to him in the ring and it’s just a piece of art to see this. For about eleven minutes, these two would put on a clinic with excellent storytelling and the more I see SANADA wrestle, he’s just moving up the ladder with me and right now my favorite Freelancer right next to Kota Ibushi, this guy is just a work of art and this is the best time to get into him if you haven’t yet. Zack deserves as much credit here with his ability and his emotions into the match with how he’s being frustrated with his opponent and mostly shocked by how well SANADA was dealing with him. SANADA would get Zack into the Skull end and Zack tries to reverse it into a European Clutch like how he won the last time and SANADA reversed it into the same clutch and actually picks up the win here! What a surprise right here and a very pleasant one for sure.

Recommended: Yes, like right now.

G1 Climax 2018 Block B Match
Tetsuya Naito vs. Juice Robinson

Review: Last time they fought was April of last year when Naito was the IWGP Intercontinental Champion and the two had a surprisingly great match together and that was where you could see how well Juice would do on a bigger level against top talent and it showed since he’s the IWGP United States Champion. Naito stated that he aims to win the remaining seven matches he has left in a row so he could guarantee himself a spot in the final and to hopefully get a rematch against Omega for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. Juice right now has two losses with zero wins and he would need to win here to at least have some sort of chance but if he loses, then he’s gonna have to win the next round or he will be close to being mathematically eliminated from the tournament, so a win here for both of them is crucial.

I love how Naito is actually doing more heel tactics with this match and is just focusing on Juice’s broken hand for the majority of the match and it’s the smart thing to do because that’s what you would want to do try and help you secure that much-needed win in this type of match. Juice once again showing he’s a great underdog with the fans getting behind him while Naito is still working on his injured hand and he eventually finds a way to get the shine back into the match. While the match had a rather slow start mixed with the nice storytelling with Naito being the cool heel over Juice, it started to slowly get better as time went on and while I still much prefer their first encounter last year but still a good match. Around the last five minutes is when things would kick up into high gear with Naito hitting a Hurricanrana off the top rope as Juice rolled through to kick out and would even hit his Dusty Punches along with a Jackhammer to try and at least stun Naito and goes for the Pulp Friction only for Naito to counter it with a German Suplex. Naito would then get the upper hand with hitting a flying elbow and attempts to go for the Destino, but Juice catches him to go for the Gutbuster and before he could hit it, Naito would catch him with the Destino for the two count and Naito would quickly get back up to hit one more Destino to get the win while Juice now has three losses in his name.

Things aren’t looking good here for Juice since he has zero wins and three losses, and he also has six more matches left to go and he would need to win the rest of them if he has any chance of making it to the final, but right now his odds are very slim.

Recommended: Solid match, worth at least a viewing.

G1 Climax 2018 B Block Match
Tama Tonga vs. Kenny Omega

Review: I’m a little bit surprised that this is happening early on in the tournament, but we got our Bullet Club Civil War continuing on with Kenny Omega taking on Tama Tonga where Tama wants to show Kenny what the Bullet Club is really all about while Kenny just wants to knock Tonga of his pedestal early to give him zero momentum. Is it a day for the Golden Elite or will the OG show what Bullet Club is really all about? Kenny Omega is the only one undefeated and a win here would help out Tama Tonga be put on the spotlight and in Kenny’s radar for a future title opportunity.

Before the match would even begin, Loa and Fale would get the jump on Kenny the second he walked into the ring and Tama would get into the fray for all three of them to start beating him down until Adam Page and Chase Owens run into the ring and start to attack Loa and Fale so they could even the odds and chase them out the ring, but Kenny would dive to the outside to knock them down for good measure and gets back into the ring as Tama would attack him from behind. The two fighting each other feels more like a fight than a wrestling match since Tama just wants to hurt Omega and would control most of the match even when Kenny keeps trying to fight back on him.  Omega would go for a Snap Dragon as Tama grabbed the referee so that Loa would attack Kenny while the referee wasn’t looking but Kenny would hit a Hurricanrana to knock him back down before going back in to attack Tama and go for a V-Trigger which Tama catches him and Kenny rolls him for a two count and gets hit with a chair by Loa when the referee wasn’t looking again. Omega started to go for the One-Winged Angel but Tama gets off his shoulders to go for the Gun Stun as Kenny reversed it again but Tama catches him to get him in the Styles Clash position and would slowly make his way over to the chair that’s in the ring as the referee kicks it out of the way, and Tama lets go of Kenny to argue with the referee and hits him with the Gun Stun causing Kenny to win by Disqualification.

After the match, Loa and Fale would get back into the ring to attack Kenny once more and Tama would have the chair around his neck as he attempts to go for the Gun Stun, but Ibushi, Page, and Chase got back into the ring to chase them away. With these recent DQ losses between Tama and Fale, it seems pretty clear that they have no desire to win the G1 Climax and want to cause some mayhem and to make sure that Kenny doesn’t win either since they did do some damage to him which could cause him to potentially lose a match or two.

Recommended: For story progression between Bullet Club, definitely. But decent match.

G1 Climax 2018 Block B Match
Tomohiro Ishii vs. Hirooki Goto

Review: These two fought each other last year at the G1 Climax and in the A Block where Goto would defeat Ishii and he would actually defeat him in the G1 since around 2015 and it looks like Goto would mostly defeat Ishii whenever they’re in the ring with each other, so it looks like Goto has higher odds when it comes to fighting Ishii and Ishii wants to try and break that curse here by trying to defeat him in singles competition which is something he can rarely do. Both men have one win and loss as they would both need a victory here while the loser would have to try and keep up. Will Goto defeat Ishii once again or will Ishii finally knock him down a peg?

Wow…that is really all I can say about this match since it left me speechless, this very well might be my favorite match in this G1 Climax so far and we’re only on day six! This is the type of match that you see for the NEVER Openweight belt from years ago with guys involving Goto, Ishii, Makabe, Honma, and Shibata, it was just that good. It was fast, hard hitting, almost going blow for blow during the entire match while they would block their strikes with strikes of their own while hitting each other harder just to try and get an opening from hitting them so hard and keep on the attack. Ishii still shows that he gives us fantastic matches with just about anybody he fights in the ring and makes it all the more memorable while Goto has been doing fantastic this year so far and him being the NEVER Openweight Champion is the best thing for that belt right now since Goto represents that division well like how his friend, Shibata does. This was just an all-out war that goes on for about eighteen minutes and it just flows so fast that it feels like you’ve been watching it for about ten minutes and it leaves you a bit with wanting more, but they had the perfect amount of match length with each other. The two started pulling out all the stops wish Ishii first hitting an Avalanche Brainbuster for a two count, even Goto hitting a reverse GTR to get a two count as well and these two just won’t quit against each other and it looked like they were gonna go for a double Lariat, but it looked like Ishii would hit all of it while still taking the damage and collapses on the ground, what a fight. Goto would hit the Shouten Kai for another two count and it looks like he would get ready to put him away with another GTR but Ishii would hit him with a Headbutt as the two hit each other with another Headbutt as Ishii switches it up with an Enziguri and a Sliding Lariat for the two count and he would lift Goto up for the Vertical Drop Brainbuster for the three count and he finally beats Goto!

I believe the last time Ishii has defeated Goto was about four years ago when they fought for the NEVER Openweight Championship, but I very may well be wrong though and if I am, please let me know so I can correct it, but still it’s very refreshing to see Ishii get the win over him after so long. Since Ishii does have that win over Goto, he could go for the championship after the tournament if he wanted to, but I don’t think that’ll happen since people in the same faction don’t really fight each other for the titles, unless something changes since Jay White has been causing a bit of buzz in CHAOS right now, so never say never in wrestling as they say.

Recommended: Watch it, now.

Overall: B Block has killed it for the third time in a row compared to A Block and this is the third time that I had a strong start in these types of tournaments. Just like I have in Champion Carnival and King of Gate while the ending felt okay and Andrew had the stronger endings and even with his block winners won those tournaments, so it very may well happen again.

Favorite Match: Tomohiro Ishii vs. Hirooki Goto

Least Favorite Match: Tama Tonga vs. Kenny Omega

Score: 8.5/10

B Block Standings:
Kenny Omega 3-0 (6 Points)
Kota Ibushi: 2-1 (4 Points)
Tomohiro Ishii: 2-1 (4 Points)
Tetsuya Naito: 2-1 (4 Points)
SANADA: 2-1 (4 Points)
Zack Sabre Jr: 1-2 (2 Points)
Hirooki Goto: 1-2 (2 Points)
Tama Tonga: 1-2 (2 Points)
Toru Yano: 1-2 (2 Points)
Juice Robinson: 0-3 (0 Points)