Csonka’s NJPW G1 Climax Day 18 Review

NJPW G1 Climax Day 18 8.14.15

OFFICIAL RESULTS
* Block B: Yujiro Takahashi defeated Tomoaki Honma @ 10:33 via pin [**¾]
* Block B: Tomohiro Ishii defeated Michael Elgin @ 14:30 via pin [****¾]
* Block B: Yuji Nagata defeated Hirooki Goto @ 13:00 via pin [****]
* Block B: Satoshi Kojima defeated Karl Anderson @ 10:53 via pin [***]
* Block B: Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Kazuchika Okada @ 23:31 via submission [****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.

Yujiro Takahashi defeated Tomoaki Honma: Honma was riding high off of his first G1 victory, and now the story was him trying to follow up that victory and gain momentum. Honma got a lot of offense and hit several kokeshi’s. Takahashi then took a page from Yano and low blowed Honma, leading to the Miami shine and a stolen win for Takahashi. It didn’t have the juice of most Honma matches, but it wasn’t horrible at all. Honma was devastated that he couldn’t keep his promise to continue winning. HonMania was a beautiful thing while it lasted.

Tomohiro Ishii defeated Michael Elgin: Holy shit, this was fucking fantastic; when it was done all I could think is that they put this on too early, because now three matches have to follow this. The insanity of these two strong ass men beating the hell out of each other for 14-minutes was something to behold. This was an Ishii+ match (shades of work with Goto and Honma, but different and a bit more reckless at times in a good way), with Elgin continuing his great run of performances and looking to earn a spot here. Elgin got to look fantastic with his power stuff, including a running powerbomb on the floor and then a dead lift into a falcon arrow suplex off of the ropes. His power stuff has gotten over so well that the crowds “ooh and ahh” now. Elgin got a ton of time to shine, Ishii got to sell for him (which I previously spoke about being an underrated aspect of his game) and they had a spectacular crowd. This was must see, and is in the upper tier of G1 matches for 2015. Ishii picked up the win, but this was one of those performances where Elgin lost nothing and will likely be better off overall. This was Elgin’s best single’s performance is a long time, and would have been a welcomed main event to any big time show this year.

Yuji Nagata defeated Hirooki Goto: I was worried about who would have to follow that last match, but Nagata and Goto did a really good job of following and delivering a high quality match. I really enjoyed this, as Goto controlled early and worked over the ribs of Nagata, which had been an issue for him during the tournament. As Goto was seemingly in control and looking for a finish, Nagata scored the arm bar out of nowhere, and while he did not get the finish, it was enough to turn the tide and allow Nagata to battle back. From there we had the war warn veteran fighting back for pride, since the glory of the tournament was long out of reach. Nagata finally hit the backdrop driver and scored the win, eliminating Goto out of contention to win the block, and likely setting up an IC Title match. I really enjoyed this and felt that they followed the last match well with a good, efficient story and well executed work.

Satoshi Kojima defeated Karl Anderson: This was an overall good match, with Anderson still mathematically alive to win the block, he needed the win here. This was a fun back and forth effort, trading the trademark stuff and with Anderson trying to eliminate the lariat by working the arm. But it wasn’t enough, as Kojima had enough to fire away with one more lariat and that is what put Anderson away and dashed his tournament hopes. Much like the last match, this should set up Tenzan and Kojima challenging Bullet Club for the tag titles. This was good, but obviously felt like a let down after the first two matches.

Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Kazuchika Okada : so we came to the main event, and with Anderson and Goto out of contention, the winner here would win the block. They had an awesome crowd, and delivered a true main event caliber match here, worthy of its position and what they were fighting for. I felt that if Nakamura were to win that he’d have to have a special performance here, because I haven’t thought his overall tournament was that great. Okada got to play the heel role here, and he thrives at that so that was a good thing. They had good back and forth, went to the floor and Okada nearly ended him with a tombstone. Nakamura would continue to fight on, including a comeback that included the DVD and Boma ye. The way that they worked the build, reacted to the crowd and just everything seemed effortless and it all felt right and never felt long. Okada hit the rainmaker, then the tombstone and went for another rainmaker to finish it off. He then went for another, but Nakamura scored with the arm bar counter, flattened Okada out and he finally had to tap. Awesome. The overall effort was just tremendous, and overall on par with their 2014 finals match from a work standpoint, which I felt was one of if not the best G1 finals of all time. In a way, it may be better from a storytelling aspect. I recently watched that final again (twice actually) but this one has something that just pulls me in a little more.

BLOCK B Standings
~ Shinsuke Nakamura – 14 POINTS [7 wins, 2 losses]
~ Kazuchika Okada – 14 POINTS [7 wins, 2 losses]
~ Karl Anderson – 12 POINTS [6 wins, 3 losses]
~ Hirooki Goto – 12 POINTS [6 wins, 3 losses]
~ Tomohiro Ishii – 10 POINTS [5 wins, 4 losses]
~ Michael Elgin – 8 POINTS [4 win, 5 losses]
~ Satoshi Kojima – 6 POINTS [3 wins, 6 losses]
~ Yuji Nagata – 6 POINTS [3 wins, 6 losses]
~ Yujiro Takahashi – 6 POINTS [3 wins, 6 losses]
~ Tomoaki Honma – 2 POINTS [1 win, 8 losses]

– End scene.

– Thanks for reading.

“I’m out…”