Csonka’s NJPW G1 Climax Day 14 Review

NJPW G1 Climax Day 14 8.09.15 (Korakuen Hall in Tokyo)

OFFICIAL RESULTS
– Block B Match: Karl Anderson defeated Michael Elgin @ 13:00 via pin [***¾]
– Block B Match: Yugi Nagata defeated Satoshi Kojima @ 10:50 via pin [***]
– Block B Match: Kazuchika Okada defeated Yujiro Takahashi @ 14:20 via pin [***½]
– Block B Match: Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Tomoaki Honma @ 11:50 via pin [****]
– Block B Match: Hirooki Goto defeated Tomohiro Ishii @ 17:10 via pin [****¾]

* 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.

Karl Anderson defeated Michael Elgin: The more I see of Elgin in this tournament, the more I am thinking he may just need to stay in Japan. I was completely burned out on his ROH work, but he feels re-energized here and as I previously stated, the G1 formula plays completely to his strengths. Anderson has been having a strong tour, with a lot of good matches (but nothing really great so far). But one thing is for sure to me, and that is something I said last year; Anderson needs to move away from the tag with Gallows and become a singles guy because he’s wasted in that tag team. Anyway, these two worked really well together, the crowd loves Elgin’s power game and reacts to him like a star when it comes to that. I really dug the chemistry here, and feel they could do even better if they got time and feuded a bit. Anderson countered the Elgin powerbomb into the gun stun and picked up another victory. This was a damn fine way to kick off the night’s tournament matches.

Yugi Nagata defeated Satoshi Kojima: This was a lame duck match in many ways, as both guys are out of the tournament standings and Nagata hasn’t been really booked as much of a factor this year. The good news was that the crowd wanted to see these guys, and reacted well to everything they did. Kojima worked the heel role and dominated the match, with the story being that he couldn’t hit the lariat because Nagata kept avoiding it and countering it to stay alive. This was a simple, yet effective story. Nagata battled back, and the backdrop driver secured the win for him. Despite the situation, they worked hard and had a great crowd, and they delivered a good and fun match.

Kazuchika Okada defeated Yujiro Takahashi: The thought of Takahashi going 14-minutes normally sends me to the brink of insanity. I do not find him to be all that good, and really only looks like a competent pro wrestler when in there with great wrestlers. Thankfully we had Kazuchika Okada as his opponent, and this ended up being a good match. Okada, much like Styles, is having such a great tournament in terms of working to the strengths of his opponents and setting up the matches for success. They did the ref bump here, which I am not a fan of, but I will say that it did lead to a really good near fall when Takahashi hit the Miami Shine. Gedo would take out Cody Hall, leading to the tombstone and then the rainmaker for Okada to pick up the victory. We’re having a really good night so far.

Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Tomoaki Honma: In many ways I have been under whelmed with Nakamura during the tournament. Part of it is the elbow injury, and part of that is the fact that I have felt that his matches have lacked an energy and sense of urgency. But that changed here as I felt Nakamura delivered his best match of the tournament with Honma. The crowd was into this big time, as they were into the entire match. Nakamura looked to set for the Boma ye, but Honma leaped into his with a huge head butt and fired up! It was finally his time, and he hit the ropes and…

So close…

Then he jumped into a Boma ye and that was all. SON OF A BITCH! Anyway, this was great work from both guys, and a highly enjoyable match.

Hirooki Goto defeated Tomohiro Ishii: I was really hyped for this match, because I knew that once things got started that they would wage war and beat the living hell out of each other. The level of violence that guys like these two are willing to go is something I appreciate, because it is so different from anything on the show. They would just brutalize each other with lariats, stiff strikes, elbows and even some head dropping brainbuster goodness. This was just so good, and hooked me big time, and as they worked I was almost wondering, “what the fuck am I watching,” and I mean that in the best way possible. Ishii gets pigeonholed as a guy that just works strong style matches and hits guys hard, but his selling is vastly underrated as he was so good here, and really has been all tournament long. The stiff work, the hot crowd and near falls all came together almost perfectly and in the end, we got one of the best matches of the tournament. Make time for this, it’s a pretty amazing main event level match. This was one of those matches that pulls you in from the start, keeps you invested and you don’t even realize how long it was what it was over.

BLOCK B Standings
~ Kazuchika Okada – 12 POINTS [6 wins, 1 losses]
~ Karl Anderson – 10 POINTS [5 wins, 2 losses]
~ Hirooki Goto – 10 POINTS [5 wins, 2 losses]
~ Shinsuke Nakamura – 10 POINTS [5 wins, 2 losses]
~ Michael Elgin – 8 POINTS [4 win, 3 losses]
~ Tomohiro Ishii – 8 POINTS [4 wins, 3 losses]
~ Satoshi Kojima – 4 POINTS [2 wins, 5 losses]
~ Yuji Nagata – 4 POINTS [2 wins, 5 losses]
~ Yujiro Takahashi – 4 POINTS [2 wins, 5 losses]
~ Tomoaki Honma – 0 POINTS [7 losses]

– End scene.

– Thanks for reading.

“I’m out…”