Csonka’s NJPW G1 Climax Day 10 Review

NJPW G1 Climax Day Nine 8.04.15

OFFICIAL RESULTS
– Block B Match: Michael Elgin defeated Yujiro Takahashi @ 12:00 via pin [***]
– Block B Match: Satoshi Kojima defeated Tomoaki Honma @ 10:20 via pin [***½]
– Block B Match: Tomohiro Ishii defeated Yuji Nagata @ 16:20 via pin [****]
– Block B Match: Kazuchika Okada defeated Karl Anderson @ 14:35 via pin [***¾]
– Block B Match: Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Hirooki Goto @ 15:30 via submission [***½]

* Disclaimer I will be doing what I did with the Best of the Super Juniors tournament, I will just be reviewing the tournament matches from each day. They are what matters, and I don’t worry about burning out.

Michael Elgin defeated Yujiro Takahashi: Michael Elgin has been having a good G1 thus far, but he had his work cut out for him on this night, as he had to try and drag a good match out of Takahashi. Elgin continued to look good here, as he strapped Takahashi to his back and dragged him to an enjoyable match. It’s performances like this that really make me feel he’s earning a regular spot with New Japan when this is all done. The better matches are what everyone will point to, but making me enjoy a Takahashi match is doing the lord’s work. This was all Elgin, in the best way possible. The buckle bomb and then the sitout powerbomb finished things off.

Satoshi Kojima defeated Tomoaki Honma: HonmaMania runnin wild baby, there’s no way he’s losing to old man Kojima. The crowd was into this match, and Honma worked his hardest. The finishing stretch was really good as Honma survived the dreaded lariat from Kojima, and was primed to pick up his first big win in the G1. But then Kojima fought back and hit a lariat for the win because he’s a dick. Honma was devastated as his big for the 2015 G1 was officially over. According to “the maths”. I don’t know if I can continue to cover this tournament now that Honma can’t win. I R SAD PANDA. It was the usual good Honma match, invested crowd and the other dude looking good in the win.

Tomohiro Ishii defeated Yuji Nagata: These two have worked well together in the past, which made me look forward to this meeting. This was really enjoyable, the work felt smooth but also very physical. Nagata can still turn it up and deliver quality outings, and this was another example of that. At one point they just started to slap the shit out of each other, hard, and then Ishii just head butted Nagata in his face. Now we all know this is wrestling, but there is something about doing a sequence like this in the right match, the right time with the right crowd that makes it almost feel real, and that is what I appreciate. Ishii took all of what old man Nagata had, but in the end he put him away with the brain buster. This was extremely enjoyable.

Kazuchika Okada defeated Karl Anderson: This was a really enjoyable co-main event match. These guys have worked together a lot in the past, and they work very well together. The one thing they did here was not completely rely on the rainmaker/gun stun counters as the basis of the match. They have done that in the past, it works, but you can’t do it every time out. Anderson controlled most of the way, they played with the counters and delivered a good, but different match than they usually do. Okada took out Anderson with the tombstone and then the rainmaker. He shares in the lead now with Ishii.

Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Hirooki Goto: Nakamura continued to roll on, and picked up another big win over Goto. I felt that this was a good main event, but like most of Nakamura’s tournament, I felt it lacking. And this isn’t something just popped up due to the injury, I didn’t think that the earlier Nakamura stuff was his best work either. The crowd was also in it at times, but they didn’t feel invested like they have for other main events during the tournament. The work was rock solid, I liked the match (it was enjoyable), and the finish was sweet as Goto went for a lariat and Nakamura did his awesome counter into the arm bar to pick up the win. The best description is that it was good, just not great.

Rolling juji gatame! #NJPW #G125 pic.twitter.com/s0iD2Ylrrb

— LARIATOOOOO!!! (@SenorLARIATO) August 4, 2015

BLOCK B Standings
~ Kazuchika Okada – 8 POINTS [4 wins, 1 losses]
~ Tomohiro Ishii – 8 POINTS [4 wins, 1 loss]
~ Karl Anderson – 6 POINTS [3 wins, 2 loss]
~ Hirooki Goto – 6 POINTS [3 wins, 2 loss]
~ Shinsuke Nakamura – 6 POINTS [3 wins, 2 losses]
~ Michael Elgin – 6 POINTS [3 win, 2 losses]
~ Satoshi Kojima – 4 POINTS [2 wins, 3 losses]
~ Yuji Nagata – 2 POINTS [1 win, 4 losses]
~ Yujiro Takahashi – 4 POINTS [2 wins, 3 losses]
~ Tomoaki Honma – 0 POINTS [5 losses]

– End scene.

– Thanks for reading.

“I’m out…”