Andrew’s G1 Climax 31 Day 7 & 8 Results & Match Ratings

Another combination plate because Thursday shows are hard for me to make time for! So G1 Day 7 & 8, something has to be worth watching. Right? Right…?

Something interesting, is BUSHI will be facing Yujiro in the non-tournament match. I wonder if they switched for story purposes, just for rotation or because even Yuji Nagata losing to Takahashi makes no sense.

Aside from that we’ve got a few people toward the bottom facing one another in A Block and B Block has a lot of potential upsets or logical eliminations. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times, 3 losses is about all you can really absorb to have a realistic chance of making the Finals. B Block has 3 wrestlers at 0-3. Goto could upset Okada, that’s not an insult. Chase could beat EVIL but I’m assuming he’ll cheat his way to victory. Then there’s YOSHI-HASHI, who will probably get the undeserved win over Taichi who just got screwed because EVIL and Dick Togo attacked Miho.

I’m not looking forward to our Holy Emperor getting insulted. But that’s prolly where we’re going. But can we not? Please? Ugh…I’m gonna hate Day 8, I’m pretty sure.

Ratings:

• Yujiro Takahashi vs BUSHI: Yujiro wins via Big Juice @13:01 – ** ¼
• A Block: Tanga Loa vs Tomohiro Ishii: Ishii wins via Vertical Drop Brainbuster @16:18 – *** ½
• A Block: Zack Sabre Jr vs Great-O-Khan: ZSJ wins via Flying Yes! I Am A Long Way From Home @15:26 – ****
• A Block: Kota Ibushi vs Toru Yano: Ibushi wins via Kamygoye @4:03 – * ½
• A Block: Shingo Takagi vs KENTA: Shingo wins via Last of the Dragon @23:56 – *** ¾
• B Block: Tama Tonga vs Jeff Cobb: Cobb wins via Tour of the Islands @12:47 – *** ¼
• B Block: EVIL vs Chase Owens: EVIL wins via Everything is Evil @12:38 – ***
• B Block: YOSHI-HASHI vs Taichi: YOSHI-HASHI wins via Karma @22:26 – *** ¼
• B Block: Hirooki Goto vs Kazuchika Okada: Okada wins via Double Leg Cradle @18:06 – *** ½
• B Block: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs SANADA: Tanahashi wins via High Fly Flow @25:36 – *** ¾

Results:

Day 7 – A Block

Yujiro Takahashi vs BUSHI

BUSHI isn’t in full gear right away since he’s back to the “leaving the shirt on” gimmick. Yujiro however decides to slow things down by using Pieter as a shield and take a few shortcuts. This gives Yujiro a decent amount of momentum, but BUSHI manages to hit a flourish and start coming back.

BUSHI is looking to keep things going, but as he grabs a headlock, Yujiro does his signature hand bite and starts his own comeback. Yakuza Kick, Fisherman Buster, and Yujiro has the control until BUSHI tries to even things up. BUSHI tries to take the opening and go for MX, but Yujiro responds with a Lariat and they’re both laid out.

Some back and forth goes on, Yujiro has moments, BUSHI has moments, most notably BUSHI’s flash School Boy. Yujiro stands back up, a little struggle for positioning but Yujiro manages to snap off Big Juice for the win!

Tanga Loa vs Tomohiro Ishii

Strong Style Hoss battle this was! They kicked things off with a solid forearm exchange, and just kept beating on each other. Loa had great moments, even pulled out a Dropkick when Ishii was running the ropes. Ishii just wouldn’t stay down. Being at 3 losses already, Ishii can’t pick up a fourth this early.

After great heavy hitting action it turns into next haymaker wins. Loa scoops Ishii up quickly for Ape Shit, but Ishii keeps fighting and moving, slips out and keeps a hold of Loa to lift him into the Vertical Drop Brainbuster! Ishii finally gets a real win!

This might have been Loa’s best singles match. He was dialed in, wrestled a solid strong style, sold logically and did a really good job in this Hoss battle.

Zack Sabre Jr vs Great-O-Khan

ZSJ once said having a technical match in front of Americans is like reading Shakespeare to dogs. Well I get where he’s coming from, but I enjoyed this quite a bit. It was a mat classic early, with both men staying in classic wrestling and mat grappling techniques. O-Khan even told ZSJ he’ll “JUST TAP OUT” – which is a nice reference to Taka Michinoku’s hype man Submission Master era.

O-Khan had a great submission where he grabbed the claw hold, but bent ZSJ behind his back like a low claw torture rack. ZSJ didn’t tap and O-Khan had to drop the hold due to strain and just an awkward position. O-Khan was taking control, lifts Zack for the Eliminator, and Zack slaps on a Flying Triangle Armbar, but transitions it into the Flying Octopus while looking for that arm. He gets O-Khan to break his grip, gets the arm straight and O-Khan taps fairly quickly.

ZSJ is now the last remaining undefeated wrestler in A Block!

Kota Ibushi vs Toru Yano

Yano is back up to his Sublime Master Thief stuff. He puts a bag over Ibushi’s head, gets two near falls and then Yano wraps him in the ring apron…I’m gonna call it…an Ibushi Roll. But Ibushi gets in before 20.

Trying to tie Ibushi’s legs together almost costs Yano since Ibushi was technically in the ring and Yano wasn’t. Yano gets in, ridiculousness ensues, Kamigoye and we’re out in less than 5 minutes. Thankfully.

Shingo Takagi vs KENTA

This entire match was built around KENTA trying to take advantage of the injury that ZSJ caused to the defending champion and Shingo trying to power through it and say “screw the arm”, so to speak.

KENTA applied Game Over to the damaged arm, Fujiwara Armbars, strikes and just was a general menace honing in on the injury. KENTA did try to keep up his opportunistic cheating at the moment. He removed the turnbuckle pad, bumped the referee and hit a Low Blow on Shingo to try and soften up the champ with more ease.

Shingo fought through the onslaught, managed to reverse the Go 2 Sleep, push KENTA into his own exposed turnbuckle and then hit Last of the Dragon. It was a damn good struggle, mostly a hard hitting fairly clean match given the participants, so definitely worthy of the main event spot.

A Block:

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

Day 8 – B Block

Tama Tonga vs Jeff Cobb

Speed versus Power is the thread of this match. A quick tie up and push off causes Tama to take off the vest, then we see a lot of Tama trying to wrestle from underneath. Ducks a few strikes, Uppercut, and then Cobb catches him mid Stinger Splash and throws him. Tama has trouble finding his offense for a while.

It’s not until the second Cobb corner Stampede, which Tama slips out, hits a few moves including Vileno, and now finally has something grooving. It takes 3 attempts, but Tama finally hits the Stinger Splash and transitions it into a Death Valley Driver and near fall. Tama seems to be getting a little too excited from the crowd support and Cobb stifles the next offensive attempt. Dropkick, corner Side Attack, Gachimuchi Moonsault and only a near fall. Cobb then starts talking smack, saying “Tama ain’t shit, his podcast ain’t shit, his family ain’t shit” – I’m amused at Cobb throwing the podcast in there as an insult.

Tama fires up, throws together some offense, even hits his High Fly Flow which he calls Supreme Flow, for only 2. Tama hunts for the Gun Stun, Cobb fights back, Cobb counters the next Gun Stun with a Release German Suplex, short arm Tour of the Islands, and Cobb wins!

EVIL vs Chase Owens

You know, this could be fun. Every other Bullet Club inner-faction fight has been solid and prideful, no real stupidity. This one starts with EVIL telling Chase to lay down, Chase says no. But we see a break in the BC formula and Dick Togo trips Chase to help out EVIL. Should be noted that Bullet Club proper members have been doing a really good job trying to prove themselves. Except EVIL…of course the Hot Topic shopping trash can has to just be a scumbag.

Togo gets involved every time Chase goes to the outside. It does a good job at building sympathy for Chase. He wants to earn his wins, his respect and prove himself, where EVIL is just doing his usual garbage. Chase starts getting some offense together and takes an old school mentality to his moveset. He hits a Springboard Back Elbow, which old school mentality was that Heels wouldn’t use high spot moves. But Chase does a great job showing his Ricky Morton training and applying little wrinkles to these matches. Notably, the fans in attendance enjoy it, they applaud his high spots and have been urging him to win.

Chase puts on a great show trying to fight two men at once. He even hits a Slingshot Spear after wiping out Dick Togo, but the numbers are too much and Chase fails in his attempt to earn a legitimate 2 points. I’ll admit, even though Togo was involved often, it never took over the main focus of the match. So it was more tolerable than usual, even though the writing was on the wall.

YOSHI-HASHI vs Taichi

I’ll lead with this, if HASHI beats Taichi, I won’t know how to feel about this day. Taichi doesn’t need a loss to this dweeb after getting screwed in the previous match. Plus we don’t need YOSHI-HASHI getting another Heavyweight Tag chance. Where’s Michael Jordan when I need him to tell New Japan to “Stop It”.

Early on we see more of a return to the spiteful vindictive heel that Taichi used to be. A cheap shot immediately, stepping on HASHI’s NEVER Openweight 6 Man title and general disrespect. This match has all the stupid trappings of Taichi getting over confident and HASHI getting a miracle win, and I hate every second of that. YOSHI-HASHI is an underwhelming dork, he we always be the dude the tripped while trying to make a save and face planted into the side of the ring. He’s a bigger joke than Yoshitatsu. Danshoku Dino is a more credible wrestler than YOSHI-HASHI in my book.

The Stretch Plum almost does the job and it’s at that point I resign myself to YOSHI-HASHI winning. A lot of counters after the fact, Lariat wars, dueling Superkicks, HASHI turns a Black Mephisto attempt into a Canadian Destroyer and eventually hits Karma. Ugh…it’s a decent enough match, but HASHI deserves nothing. He is bad, he looks bad, and our Holy Emperor just lost to the two biggest dweebs in his block. Hot Topic Jones and Face Plant McGee.

Taichi’s tournament is ruined. He may mathematically still have a chance, but with his losses, he isn’t winning anything. HASHI will be lucky to end with 6 points, for Taichi’s sake hopefully he can hold the tag titles until Wrestle Kingdom so he at least gets a decent card position.

Hirooki Goto vs Kazuchika Okada

Speaking of trap matches, Okada is probably screwed here. They usually don’t like portraying someone as eliminated already, and as I’ve said many times, 4 losses is usually elimination. So Goto being 0-3, means this will be a loss for Okada or at the least a Draw. But at least Goto deserves the win, he’s a legit guy who would be a multiple time champion in any other company.

This match was insanely competitive since they do have a fairly even record against one another. We got most of the Okada classics, corner dropkicks, Three Quarters Neckbreaker, and Goto hits his 56 signatures. Ushigoroshi, Reverse GTR, GTW, there’s a lot of letters and they equate to moves.

Surprisingly as Goto fires up, he counters the Rolling Rainmaker, and blitzes Okada. Lariats, big haymakers and Goto charges, Okada manages to counter, turn it into his Double Legged Cradle and picks up the win! The first non-Rainmaker victory of the tournament.

Well smack my ass and call me a Shirley, Okada actually won the expected trap. Solid match, heartbreaking for Goto, and makes you wonder what they have in store for Goto moving forward.

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs SANADA

We’ve seen this match a few times, and it’s a generic Tanahashi match in the last few years. A quick move trade, into the both go for a Dragon Screw and then start discussing putting the leg down at the same time. SANADA is the one to pick the leg back up, Dragon Screw and Frankensteiners are SANADA’s bread and butter for a while until Tanahashi catches SANADA mid Frankensteiner and turns it into a Cloverleaf (actually a pretty cool spot).

SANADA puts some offense together, goes for a Magic Screw, but Tanahashi blocks it and hits the Twist and Shout. High Fly Flow attempt, knees up, Moonsault, knees up. They continue the mirror match with a strike exchange followed by a few Roll-Up attempts for near falls. Tanahashi fights off Skull End, eventually this a Dragon Suplex Hold for only 2, then goes up for the High Fly Flow, this time connecting and winning 2 points somewhat legitimately.

B Block:

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

Overall Scores – Day 7: 7/10 – Day 8: 6.25/10

The match ratings are a little misleading for the quality of the shows. Day 1 had significantly better matches, because even if the Yano match barely counts, it was VERY Yano and we were in and out in less than 5 minutes. Saber and Great-O-Khan was the match of the two nights, and even Shingo vs KENTA was really good work.

Day 8 just fell short everywhere. Sure we got a tolerable EVIL match, but it was honestly a little sad to see EVIL need to cheat to screw over Chase. Plus the only upset of the night was YOSHI-HASHI! WHO DOESN’T DESERVE IT! God damn, if he ends up beating Goto in their next match, Goto should just forfeit the rest of the tournament and see if NOAH is hiring. That’s not to say he would be buried, just more losing to HASHI is a damn death sentence so you might as well go into hiding or change companies.

Just a lot of boring or bad outcomes Day 8 and B Block just isn’t interesting at all. Tanahashi will get more wins that he should, Cobb and Okada will come down to the last night, and the bottom 3 will eventually play spoiler, but it’s just very uninspired booking. This has been one of the most boring G1s I’ve ever watched.

Hell even last year when people claimed 1 Block sucked, the other Block kept things moving. This is just…meh.