Andrew’s G1 Climax 31 Day 15 Results & Match Ratings: 10.13.2021

A Block still matters! Half of the block is still alive and the matchups seem favorable to keep things close!

Well like I’ve been saying, at least A Block this year has a solid enough storyline even if the wrestling is spotty depending on the matchups.

Today though everything seems interesting, even the non-tournament match. Yujiro is fighting for pride, same as Tanga Loa, so we might get more punch out of them than expected. KENTA, ZSJ and Shingo need to win to keep pace with Ibushi and set up weird tie breaker conversation for the last day.

So let’s get around to this!

Ratings:

• Satoshi Kojima vs Kota Ibushi: Ibushi wins via Kamigoye @14:56 – *** ½
• Tomohiro Ishii vs Yujiro Takahashi: Ishii wins via Vertical Drop Brainbuster @17:00 – ****
• KENTA vs Tanga Loa: KENTA wins via Dirty Roll Up @22:12 – *** ¼
• ZSJ vs Toru Yano: ZSJ wins via Handcuffed Cross Armbreaker @6:42 – ** ¼
• Great-O-Khan vs Shingo Takagi: Shingo wins via Last of the Dragon @25:50 – *** ¾

Results:

Satoshi Kojima vs Kota Ibushi

Once again, the non-tournament match has the potential to be the best or at least second best match of the day. Kojima hasn’t had a ton of big success the past few years since he’s fallen back into the “old veteran” status, but he still has plenty in the tank to put on a good show.

Kota controls the early pace until the head Dad of Bread Club pushes the pace and is even the first to go for a Plancha to the outside. Kojima misses the Plancha as the start to trade with Kota winning the exchanges whenever he peppers in some kicks.

The suspense pops up as they fight on the apron, and Kojima actually gets the best of the situation and DDTs Kota into the apron. The referee gets to about 17 before Kojima goes back out to collect Kota to prove a point. He wants a legit pinfall not a count out victory. Kota manages to buy himself some time with a High Kick, eventually goes into a Sitout Powerbomb, Bomaye…and that’s only 2! Kamigoye gets blocked, Kojima turns the situation into a Koji Cutter and starts looking for the Cozy Lariat after the near fall. Kota finds different ways to try to maneuver away from the Lariat, but Kojima catches him with different lariat variations.

As we get to the end, Kojima and Kota collide in the center with Kojima hitting the statuesque Lariat to prove his resolve as Kota crashes. Kojima has crowd support, looks to be in control, but Ibushi pulls out a V Trigger which really rocks Kojima. Then a Kamigoye ends things in favor of the Golden Star.

This was probably the closest non-tournament match, with the exception of the KENTA vs Hiromu match. Those two were probably the most competitive that had moments of possibly seeing the upset incoming.

Tomohiro Ishii vs Yujiro Takahashi

So this was a surprise match to me. I didn’t give the usual timeline style of coverage because I expected a small flash from Yujiro but then a roughly 10 minute murder. However, Yujiro put up great fight, didn’t look bad and even had a small fire moment that the crowd went with.

Also it should be noted that Yujiro only cheated once and that’s early with the cane and the Pieter distraction. The rest was straight forward. Yujiro fought hard to stifle Ishii’s onslaught, he even went for a Buckle Bomb but didn’t get Ishii high enough and it turned into a Power Bomb in the corner where Ishii’s head barely clipped the pad, but not enough to be an egregious error.

Miami Shine, Olympic Slam and Pimp Juice gave Yujiro a lot of momentum. Ishii fought off Big Juice twice, it was a really solid hard hitting affair where Ishii finally got Yujiro into a position to pull off the Brainbuster and that was all she wrote. Quality match.

KENTA vs Tanga Loa

KENTA decided to play with people for a while in the early moments of the match. The cheeky rope breaks and the powders in and out as you can hear them jawing at each other with KENTA changing his tune for “come inside” or “come outside” and doing his best to not crack and amuse himself. Jado puts the breaks on that as he just gets in the way when KENTA tries to powder for like the 6^th time and KENTA had one of those movie moments of “God dammit…”.

Loa takes over in the match and KENTA keeps trying to find a way through, which is just waiting for Loa to get a little cocky. Loa also has a done great in the last few matches by showing off more moves in his repertoire, this match hitting a Standing Moonsault during his early flurry. Loa fires through KENTA’s relentless kicks and hits an Enzuigiri and Blue Thunder Bomb before KENTA needs to take a breather. That doesn’t work how KENTA expected though, since Loa follows him out and starts beating on him; but then throws him back in the ring instead of taking a possible Count Out.

KENTA takes advantage of Loa coming in second. Catches him in the ropes, hits his vintage Rope Hang Knee Drop, followed by Green Killer right in front of Jado. Loa counters the first sequence attempt at the Hesitation Dropkick, but KENTA gets it the next time around. KENTA and Loa have a big strike exchange, Loa looks to end it as he gets in the 3 Point Stance. KENTA throws Loa into the referee, Loa recovers and barks at KENTA to fight him like a man because he’s been acting like a bitch all match. KENTA replies with a Low Blow.

Jado gets mad at KENTA for the blatant foul on a teammate, which actually provokes Jado to start coming into the ring, KENTA kicks the rope and takes out Jado. He grabs the kendo stick and plays some Eddie Guerrero so the referee thinks Jado hit KENTA as has been his M.O. KENTA looks to take advantage of the distracted referee, but Loa returns the Low Blow, KENTA tries to Frakensteiner out of a Powerbomb, but Loa holds, KENTA tries to drop into a Small Package, but Loa holds. Loa almost pulls off the Running Powerslam, but KENTA slips out, drives Loa into the corner, rolls him up, puts his feet on the ropes and KENTA wins!

ZSJ vs Toru Yano

Zack grabs Yano before the introduction really begins. Sleeper Hold, tries a quick roll up but Yano kicks. Zack stays on top of Yano and tries to keep the quick pinfall attempts before Yano goes to the outside to take most of his entrance attire off.

Silliness, Yano takes Zack to the back, runs back to the ring and ZSJ stumbles out with a bag over his head. Zack beats the count, shenanigans, Yano tries the under the ring thing, doesn’t work, but they end up handcuffed together. They run into the ring at 19 together, Yano gets put in an Armbar, but Yano has the key in his boot. So Yano tries to undo the cuffs, Zack pulls back harder on the submission and Yano taps out.

Great-O-Khan vs Shingo Takagi

Shingo comes out with his left side taped up a bit. Will it cost him like it did with Taichi?

O-Khan did a very good job proving his power and youthful resolve while having an above average wrestling IQ. It took a while for Shingo to fire through the punishment and apply his power game even through the rib injury.

There were flourishes, O-Khan countered Last of the Dragon a few times, Shingo countered the Eliminator and we had a power man lariat off. Shingo barely got the best of it, fuels himself to finish it, hits Last of the Dragon and keeps everything close in block.

Overall Score: 7.25/10

I can’t say I’m really surprised, and that’s not because I had Shingo winning the block, but because they played things generally safe with the outcomes. The matches were just a little more consistent than I expected, nothing was amazing, but there was variety and quality throughout.

So let’s take a look at the last A Block on the 18^th:

• Kota Ibushi vs KENTA: Is probably the main event looking at the shake out.
• For Ibushi to win Block: If Shingo wins, Ibushi needs to win and ZSJ needs to lose or draw.
• For KENTA to win Block: If Shingo loses & Zack wins, KENTA needs to win. If Zack loses and Shingo Draws, KENTA needs to win.
• Tomohiro Ishii vs Toru Yano: This will either be right before or right after Intermission probably. Ishii doesn’t really have an angle to win the Block because he lost to both KENTA and Ibushi. I suppose if we go with Suzuki’s old comment of both getting struck by lightning and Ishii wins, then there might be some math there. But Ishii is out regardless of Kevin Kelly’s sus arithmetic.
• Shingo Takagi vs Yujiro Takahashi: For Shingo to win the Block: He needs to win, Ibushi needs to Lose or Draw, ZSJ needs to Lose or Draw, KENTA is a non-factor because of tie breaker.
• Zack Sabre Jr vs Tanga Loa: For ZSJ to win Block: He needs to win and KENTA needs to Draw or Lose. ZSJ has tie breakers over everyone else.
• So KENTA is really the biggest factor on this final day. If KENTA can beat Ibushi that opens things up to however the rest of the day shook out. This is shaping up to be interesting.

A Block:

1. Kota Ibushi/ 6-2/ 12 Points
2. Zack Sabre Jr/ 6-2 / 12 Points
3. KENTA/ 6-2/ 12 Points
4. Shingo Takagi/ 6-2 / 12 Points
5. Tomohiro Ishii/ 5-3/ 10 Points – Eliminated
6. Toru Yano/ 4-4/ 8 Points – Eliminated
7. Great-O-Khan/ 4-5 / 8 Points – Eliminated
8. Yujiro Takahashi/ 2-6 / 4 Points – Eliminated
9. Tanga Loa/ 2-6/ 4 Points – Eliminated
10. Tetsuya Naito/ 0-9/ 0 Points (Eliminated Injury)