Andrew’s G1 Climax 31 Day 1 Results & Match Ratings: 9.18.2021

Here we go everyone! NJPW needs a shot to the system, and the G1 better be the ticket. Can Shingo be only the third reigning champion to win the tournament?

These first few matchups are really fun. Yujiro has probably his most winnable match since Ibushi is still mentally compromised after all his struggles this year. KENTA has a chance to show his comedy chops (which are great), but maybe Yano kept the bad guy gimmick going! But we all know we really only care about the last two matches.

ZSJ vs Naito works nicely off of their tag team chiding, as well as always being a solid pairing. Main evented by Tomohiro Ishii vs Shingo Takagi. Ishii has a tendency to defeat the reigning champions to earn himself a shot before Wrestle Kingdom. Does that continue?

Let’s get down to business!

Ratings:

• Kota Ibushi vs Yujiro Takahashi w/Pieter: Yujiro wins via Lifting DDT @11:31 – ** ½
• Tanga Loa vs Great-O-Khan: O-Khan wins via Eliminator @17:45 – **
• KENTA vs Toru Yano: Yano wins via Taped Hand Cradle @11:07 – *
• Tetsuya Naito vs Zack Sabre Jr: ZSJ wins via Yes I Am A Long Way From Home @27:05 – **** ¼
• Tomohiro Ishii vs Shingo Takagi: Shingo wins via Last of the Dragon @27:56 – **** ¾

Results:

Kota Ibushi vs Yujiro Takahashi w/Pieter

Ibushi seems to be continuing with the story that he’s not quite back, which makes Yujiro perfect as a first opponent since Yujiro is the weakest in the A Block, but if Yujiro wins off a recovering Ibushi, now makes the most sense. Yujiro is fully aware about this narrative. After taking a small opening flurry, Yujiro picks his spots to exploit Ibushi and put Pieter’s presence to early use.

We see Pieter distract the referee, pimp cane gets used to choke Ibushi and Kota is generally on the receiving end. Yujiro goes back to the Yakuza Kick often and tries to rack up pinfall attempts. Ibushi kicks out at 1 for a while, until the exhaustion starts to take over. Yujiro hits a Fisherman’s Buster and an Olympic Slam, both for 2 counts. So Yujiro is getting closer as the match goes on.

Ibushi counters the Miami Shine with a High Kick to the head and that finally gives him some space. Last Ride, gives Ibushi his first real near fall of the match. V Trigger stuns Yujiro, Kamigoye attempt, but Yujiro counters by throwing him into the referee. Low Blow, Pimp Juice and…NEAR FALL! Yujiro is shocked, the crowd starts to come awake, and then Yujiro hits a Lifting DDT and…wait, Yujiro wins. They actually did it and gave Yujiro the early win over a recovering Ibushi. Well now.

Tanga Loa vs Great-O-Khan

So the early doing of this match are really just a power guy struggle. Both try Shoulder Tackles after sizing one another up and the pace is very deliberate as the two men trade advantages. O=Khan due to his style being more explosive, Loa due to having Jado on the outside and sneaky style Bullet Club stuff.

After dominating thanks to Jado’s interference, Loa does what we’ve seen him do in his few singles matches this year. He starts mouthing off to O-Khan almost trying to anger him into a second wind. Loa keeps goading him about the Empire ain’t shit, and “who’s Great-O-Khan, not you” – bold strategy Cotton, let’s see if it pays off for him.

As per usual, O-Khan fires up and starts rocking Loa. Loa’s comeback gets kicked off a little weird, Jado keeps interfering at points to give Loa openings, but O-Khan overcomes the numbers game and slides out of Ape Shit, then hits the Eliminator.

This match went entirely too long for never picking up from the initial deliberate pace.

KENTA vs Toru Yano

Yano comes out looking to be in his Sublime Master Thief persona with all of the sponsors and trying to sell his DVDs. When KENTA comes out, he stops the announcer and hands him a printed script of things to say about him since Yano’s intro takes 5 minutes to say. KENTA continues to play into the personality of his opponents, and it’s nice to see that KENTA did learn things from his WWE time. Yano is mad at the announcer and KENTA seems pleased, so Bullet Club not trying to torture the outside personalities initially is a weird turn of events.

After the referee checks them both, finds tape, there’s a long powder spot and Yano tries to just walk away so the referee starts counting. Then we see back to back rope grab spots which the crowd seems amused by but sheesh this is one of those Yano matches that take too long to get interesting and even the interesting isn’t very interesting. KENTA hid tape in the entrance way, tried to flashback to last year’s way he beat Yano, but Yano barely beats the 20 count.

This gets insanely stupid. We get to the usual spots of Pad removal, Hesitiation Dropkick, more tape…I don’t care anymore. I’m gonna scroll through Facebook until I hear the bell. OH look, KENTA is trying to get another Count Out after taping Yano’s hands together and throwing him out. But Yano comes in, a few low blows, a stupid looking cradle…ugh…I hate this.

Tetsuya Naito vs Zack Sabre Jr

The gamesmanship is in early effect with the smiling and posing by both of them. Our first exchange is pretty even, and it’s not until Zack starts snapping a few twists and submissions focused around Naito’s neck that we see ZSJ take control. Zack kept moving from neck cranks, crossfaces, and straight jacket chokes. It’s not until Naito catches ZSJ with a snapping Neckbreaker that we see ZSJ lose momentum.

Even though Naito does have a few flashes of decent offense with the Esperanza from the corner and hitting the Tornado DDT, ZSJ really has a lot of control. ZSJ starts focusing on the historically bad knees, and that seems to be his main point of attack when the match gets towards the 20 minute mark. ZSJ hits an Avalanche Sunset Bomb, but Naito hits a Desperation Destino to give him a reprieve. Then the pace quickens and both men start showing some urgency when the 5 minute warning is called.

ZSJ stomps the knees, Naito counters the Zack Driver with Valencia, and then ZSJ goes for the Zack Driver again, but the falls back into sort of a Destino. Zack, being the Master of Submission that he is, finds an opening after he gets a near fall with the European Clutch. Indian Deathlock, spun inverted with a grounded Octopus called Yes I am a long way from home.

Tomohiro Ishii vs Shingo Takagi

None of us expected a soft or technical match with these two, and this didn’t disappoint. Ishii and Shingo went after one another as heavy as they could from the bell. About halfway through the fight, Ishii’s hand was visibly swollen, so one has to wonder if he actually broke something. Now I think we all know Ishii won’t take time off and he’ll just wrap it or whatever and try to tough it out, but it played into the story of the match too.

Shingo worked that arm, so a lot of Ishii’s power moves were hampered by a bad hand/arm combination. There was one scary corner spot, where Ishii just couldn’t get the power and balance for a Superplex, but Ishii dumped Shingo off safely, and sold the injured arm. He then smacked at it and fired himself for the spot, which shows the wonderful stubbornness of both men.

They threw haymakers, Ishii never landed the Vertical Drop Brainbuster, and the finish came after an exhausted headbutt exchange.Where they slumped together and Shingo just saw the opportunity to hit the Last of the Dragon, so he did.

Just a great hard hitting match.

Overall Score: 7.75/10

We had a great upset that makes sense in the story, and two wonderful matches that capped off the night. Sure the Yano/KENTA match was a painfully bad low point, but Yano matches do that. He’ll either have an idea that’s charming and amusing, or it will be a slog of garbage.

I’m quite happy with how the first day went of action went. Tanahashi and Okada have a bar to live up, but tomorrow’s show could totally be generally better. This could be the beginning of NJPW getting back on track.

Now for the Day 1 A Block Standings!

A Block:

1. Shingo Takagi/ 1-0 / 2 Points
2. Zack Sabre Jr/ 1-0 / 2 Points
3. Yujiro Takahashi/ 1-0 / 2 Points
4. Toru Yano/ 1-0 / 2 Points
5. Great-O-Khan/ 1-0 / 2 Points
6. Tomohiro Ishii/ 0-1/ 0 Points
7. Tanga Loa/ 0-1/ 0 Points
8. Tetsuya Naito/ 0-1/ 0 Points
9. KENTA/ 0-1/ 0 Points
10. Kota Ibushi/ 0-1/ 0 Points