The G1 started to bounce back quality wise, now do we get any shake ups in the who’s been leading blocks?

New Japan really loves starting these show strings on Thursday, and that’s just a bad day for me. So as has become tradition, we get a Thursday show, so that means I combine it with Friday!

So let’s not waste too much time! A Block has a potential to tighten up and B Block could be a runaway! Let’s see where this all goes!

Ratings:

• Hiromu Takahashi vs KENTA: KENTA wins via O’Connor Roll @19:01 – *** ½
• A Block: Tanga Loa vs Kota Ibushi: Ibushi wins via Kamigoye @13:46 – ** ¾
• A Block: Zack Sabre Jr vs Yujiro Takahashi: ZSJ wins via Tesco Meal Deal @14:15 – *** ¼
• A Block: Toru Yano vs Shingo Takagi: Shingo wins via Last of the Dragon @8:17 – ***
• A Block: Tomohiro Ishii vs Great-O-Khan: Ishii wins via Vertical Drop Brainbuster @26:26 – *** ¾
• B Block: Tama Tonga vs YOSHI-HASHI: HASHI wins via Karma @13:14 – ***
• B Block: Hirooki Goto vs Chase Owens: Goto wins via GTR @12:41 – ***
• B Block: SANADA vs Jeff Cobb: Cobb wins via Tour of the Islands @14:17 – *** ¼
• B Block: EVIL vs Hiroshi Tanahashi: EVIL wins via Everything is Evil @17:22 – *
• B Block: Kazuchika Okada vs Taichi: Okada wins via Rainmaker @23:10 – ****

Results:

Day 11:

Hiromu Takahashi vs KENTA

Hiromu starts off immediately with a Shotgun Kick into the corner, and wails on KENTA. As Hiromu sets up for another attack KENTA powders and starts to slow down the pace. Hiromu keeps fighting and eventually catches KENTA’s leg and arm together for a Dragon Screw variation.

Hiromu did a good job avoiding KENTA’s main artillery of Go 2 Sleep and Game Over. He did however absorb the Stun Gun, Double Footstomp and Falcon Arrow. When Hiromu got a moment to breath after hitting Victory Royal, he tried to fire and make a great upset victory happen. He did the running Death Valley Driver into the corner, then looked to transition to one of his finishers, but KENTA shoved Hiromu into the corner he exposed earlier in the match, O’Connor Roll and it’s the same way he beat Ishii.

Tanga Loa vs Kota Ibushi

Loa tries to take a more balanced actual wrestling attack through this match. Lots of Suplexes and attempts to keep Kota on the mat with his power. Loa tries to keep it close, but he hasn’t exactly looked believable through this whole tournament.

I nearly eat my words when Loa counters the Kamigoye, hits a Knee to Kota’s Shoulder Blades and starts working a faster pace. Loa even hits a Poison Rana, but then Ibushi pops up and returns the favor…sortuv, it’s a bad Poison Rana where he “got enough”. One last flash to attempt Ape Shit from Loa, but Ibushi slides out, Tombstone, Kamigoye and match over.

Again, suspension of disbelief is important, and Ibushi not looking great this tournament and Loa being Loa, it’s hard to care about this match.

Zack Sabre Jr vs Yujiro Takahashi

The early story here is Yujiro trying to hit Low Blows in futility. After looking rather ridiculous, Yujiro counters the outside Irish Whip, has Pieter distract the referee and hits ZSJ with the pimp cane. ZSJ beats the 20 count, and Yujiro peppers Forearms, stomps and general strikes on the same side of the face the cane made contact with.

From this point we get ZSJ working from underneath and Yujiro keeping things believably competitive. Yujiro countered a Tornado DDT from ZSJ, he rolled through a few submission and turned it into Miami Shine. Then Yujiro countered through a few more submission attempts to hit Pimp Juice from the perfect angle since Pieter was in the shot and threw her hands up and started celebrating. ZSJ kicked out, but between Pieter and our own habits of getting used to Takahashi winning with Pimp Juice it helped to sell Yujiro’s momentum. Yujiro went for Big Juice, but ZSJ blocked and wrestled Yujiro to the ground, twisted him up and made the Pimp tap.

Toru Yano vs Shingo Takagi

Yano must have remembered that Shingo is technically still the Open the Owarai Gate champion. So comedy runs in his veins. Which of course is false, Shingo hated the Owarai division and participated purely to kill it. But in doing so, showed glimmers of the personality we’ve seen in New Japan when he isn’t being totally serious.

Both start with bags over their head but Yano sneaks his off early. Sanitizer in the eyes, trying to hide Shingo under the ring, corner pad duel and general Yano silliness. They trade spots with the referee and Yano almost sneak attacks the Low Blow for the win, but Shingo kicks out. A few Pumping bombers and a Last of the Dragon, and that’s all she wrote.

Tomohiro Ishii vs Great-O-Khan

This was what we expect out of an Ishii match. Tough strikes, heavy handed haymakers, and very little posturing outside of O-Khan’s cockiness. The cockiness being punctuated with O-Khan’s favorite move of sitting on the back of someone’s neck while they’re pushed into the corner.

Even though we get the typical Ishii banger, the major difference between these two wrestlers, is that O-Khan gets rattled pretty easily. You saw multiple moments of desperation where he tried to force Mongolian Chops, Eliminators and just general offense looked rushed. Which plays into the story of O-Khan’s story pretty well. He went undefeated in the UK when he was on excursion, and then met nearly immediate issues when he came back. But then he started the G1 on a big tear, and is now spiraling a bit.

Ishii kept the match close, traded every big lariat and headbutt while maintaining his composure. As O-Khan tried to fire through a 1 count and stumble back to a standing position, Ishii just hits the ropes, Lariats his face off, and then hits the Vertical Drop Brainbuster.

A Block:

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

DAY 12:

Tama Tonga vs YOSHI-HASHI

HASHI frustrated Tama early, so much so that he takes the vest off after only a few minutes. Tama has been using that vest the same way Taichi uses his tear away pants. The trades through this match are very even, until Tama finally puts together some offense after a Tongan Twist, Stinger Splash, Death Valley Driver, Supreme Flow and it’s a two count. Tama tries the Gun Stun but HASHI counters it with a Backstabber.

HASHI fights through Tama’s attempts, hits Kumogoroshi to stifle the Tongan assault and tries to put something together. Tama keeps trying to fight back and find different angles for the Gun Stun, but HASHI turns him inside out with a Lariat, and then Karma gives HASHI his second win and Tama is eliminated.

While it was a solid match and Tama is a believable opponent for YOSHI-HASHI, this match doesn’t matter. It’s the same as watching a Bengals vs Jets game late in the season, you know they’re both going nowhere, so who frankly cares?

Hirooki Goto vs Chase Owens

Chase comes out of the gates hot, flies into Goto and stays on him with a few Roll-Up attempts for a quick victory. Goto returns the favor with quick offense and attempts with flash pinfalls, but this match suffers from the same as the first match. Neither of these two matter in the grand scheme of things.

It’s a solid hard hitting match where Goto uses the apron to assist some of his moves and Chase finds interesting ways to execute C Triggers and Jewel Heists. Chase has a huge chance, has Goto up for the Package Piledriver twice, but Goto kicks his legs to shake it off twice, then counters it into possibly an Ushigoroshi, but then the drops Chase forward and turns it into a GTR for the win.

SANADA vs Jeff Cobb

SANADA uses early strikes and well placed Dropkicks to keep Cobb off balance, until SANADA tries to lift Cobb and that doesn’t go well. Cobb’s power plays a big part, but SANADA follows a similar strategy that YOSHI-HASHI did and tried to chop the power base away.

Jeff Cobb absorbed a lot of offense from SANADA, but took it in stride. SANADA started running out of ideas, went to the corner for the Moonsault transition into the Skull End, but Cobb caught him, flipped him in his arms and hit Tour of the Islands.  Damn half of the block is eliminated already. This is really becoming a two horse race with EVIL looming as a possible sneak in.

EVIL vs Hiroshi Tanahashi

Literally every time Tanahashi had a moment to start a comeback or have any offense, Togo got involved. Tanahashi tries to Skin the Cat, Togo punches him in the gut. Chairs, distractions, ugh. This is garbage.

Tanahashi of course fights back valiantly, Slingblades, High Fly Flows and Cloverleaf Holds. But Togo grabs the referee, just…blah blah, this is trash. EVIL wins because he’s the edgy bad guy who New Japan are shoving down our throats in a way that none of the western fans want.

At least this match didn’t go 20 minutes, so they took SOME account of what I said a few shows ago.

Kazuchika Okada vs Taichi

After toying with one another early on, we see Taichi’s strikes get an early advantage over the Rainmaker. Okada isn’t going to crumble quickly so after Kawada Kicks and a few solid strikes, Okada starts his comeback. Taichi gets worn down quite a bit with consecutive Money Clips, thankfully for Okada he uses that more as a means to an end than trying to finish people with it.

Taichi does a really great job proving himself against Okada as they lead into a strike exchange, but this time it’s Push Kicks. Which Okada uses occasionally, but Okada isn’t really known for his kicking prowess. Funnily enough, Taichi gets made hits a Sole Butt, Superkick and then drops Okada with a Forearm. Only a near fall as Okada looks for a few things to just win, but Taichi fights through and ends up dropping Okada again with a Dropkick.

More bursts of offense from both, Taichi answers the Rolling Rainmaker with an Axe Bomber, stumbles back to Okada and eats a Drop Kick. Okada tries the Rainmaker but Taichi does a go behind which throws Okada’s balance off, Gedo Clutch for a near fall. Taichi goes for his Sumo Forearm, Okada counters into the Fire/Thunder Driver and then hits a Rainmaker for the win!

B Block:

1. Jeff Cobb / 6-0 / 12 Points
2. Kazuchika Okada / 6-0 / 12 Points
3. EVIL / 5-1 / 10 Points
4. Hiroshi Tanahashi / 3-3/ 6 Points – Eliminated
5. Taichi / 2-4 / 4 Points – Eliminated
6. SANADA / 2-4 / 4 Points – Eliminated
7. Hirooki Goto / 2-4/ 4 Points – Eliminated
8. YOSHI-HASHI / 2-4/ 4 Points – Eliminated
9. Tama Tonga / 1-5/ 2 Points – Eliminated
10. Chase Owens / 1-5/ 2 Points – Eliminated

Overall Scores – Day 11: 6.5/10 – Day 12: 5/10

Even though Taichi v Okada was a damn good match story wise and execution, these two days were pretty lame. B Block is pretty worthless now, it’s just going to come down the last day, so you can skip every other show. You may be saying “But EVIL can still sneak in”, who cares? Do you want to waste 15-20 minutes watching someone cheat the entire time? It’s just too much, too often the same, and just plain stupid.

A Block is a little better, but they’ve also got less name recognition with Naito being injured. I do expect A Block to be the shining light in this tournament though since it’s still fairly close, Day 11 was just a lot of matchups that weren’t anything more than alright. Tomorrow we’ve got an A Block day, so at least I’ll probably feel like I’m not wasting hours for 1 match here or there.

Also make sure to listen to what Kevin Kelly actually says after the EVIL match. David Bixenspan is misconstruing the comment. Both Kevin and Chris have taken more of a perspective of the audience and they complain or they play favorites the way many fans would. So his comment about hoping EVIL doesn’t win the G1 because he knows people will cancel their subscriptions is the same thing many MANY people have been saying since EVIL’s realignment. So don’t buy into cherry picked rhetoric and attempts at saying a mischaracterization is close enough to the intent of the line. Context is King.