Csonka’s NJPW G1 Climax Day Seven Review

NJPW G1 Climax Day Seven 7.29.15

OFFICIAL RESULTS
– Block A Match: Doc Gallows defeated Toru Yano @ 7:00 via pin [**]
– Block A Match: Togi Makabe defeated Hiroyoshi Tenzan @ 8:40 via pin [**½]
– Block A Match: Katsuyori Shibata defeated Kota Ibushi @ 14:25 via pin [****¾]
– Block A Match: Bad Luck Fale defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi @ 13:00 via pin [***¼]
– Block A Match: Tetsuya Naito defeated AJ Styles via pin [***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.

Doc Gallows defeated Toru Yano: In some ways I liked this more than a lot of the lower card tournament bouts. It wasn’t very good, and was filled with too much bullshit, but I was entertained at times. This has nothing to do with Gallows; I am just finding Yano more amusing as the days go by. Yano’s wackiness was amusing to me on this day and made the match go by quickly. Yano fought off Tonga and Hall, who tried to get involved, and this distracted the ref enough to allow Anderson to hit the ring. Yano ate the magic killer and that was that. Gallows is really not made for single matches, at least in my opinion; Yano at least amuses me. Also, if Gallows was going to win, why not just have him win? It’s fucking Yano! Gallows, one half of the tag team champions, should not need help defeating Yano. I hate run ins during these matches.

Togi Makabe defeated Hiroyoshi Tenzan: This was actually better than I thought it would be, as Zombie Tenzan was moving around much better than he had been. There was nothing complicated about the match, they kept it simple and didn’t go too long, and Tenzan gets enough love from the crowd that what they did here worked well. Tenzan fighting back in front of a receptive crowd just works, Makabe did well on offense and in the end won with the king kong knee drop. This was solid stuff, leaning towards good.

Katsuyori Shibata defeated Kota Ibushi: This is the time in the report where I need to inform you to STOP EVERYTHING you are doing and go and watch this match right now. This was one of the very best matches in the tournament and an upper tier match of the year candidate. Shibata has been really good so far in the tournament, delivering three **** matches so far in three singles matches. You put him with Ibushi, who already had two MOTY candidates in this tournament already and it was magic. This was absolutely tremendous, as they worked in hard-hitting action, mat work, sick looking German suplexes and worked the crowd into a frenzy. These people LOVED this action and were into everything that they were doing. This just clicked as the action kept building, and building and building and I was just glued to the screen. Shibata eventually got pissed and slapped the hell out of Ibushi, applied the sleeper of death and then finished him with the penalty kick for the win. Shibata has successfully made me buy the sleeper as the prelude for destroying his foe in 2015, and Ibushi continues to be amazing so far in the tournament. This is required viewing.

Bad Luck Fale defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi: Hiroshi Tanahashi continues to prove how great he is as he dragged Bad Luck Fale to his best match since working with Okada most likely. Tanahashi just worked his ass off and did everything in his power to make Fale and the Bullet Club goofs look great. Tanahashi had this won when he hit the high fly flow two times, but Bullet Club pulled out the ref to the floor Tanahashi escaped the Bad Luck Fall several times, but ate the grenade and a horrible looking high fly Fale (Fale nearly fell off the ropes doing the high fly flow) and that was enough for Fale to pick up the big win. All praise Tanahashi for making the pretty much unwatchable Fale entertaining. With that being said, I do NOT need to see Fale beating Tanahashi under any circumstances. Also, I hated the interference.

Tetsuya Naito defeated AJ Styles: Tetsuya Naito defeated AJ Styles in a good but not great main event. They worked hard, but I felt as if the crowd wasn’t sure how to react to the heel vs. heel match up. I felt that they worked a really nice back and forth match, Naito continues to do really well with his new persona, but this was lacking. They worked well together, they worked a clean match but I kept waiting for it to kick it up to the next gear and it just never happened. The finishing sequence was good, as AJ was looking to put Naito away, but Naito countered the bloody Sunday DDT and hit his Destino (which looked really good) for the win. Naito closed the night with a promo and then beat down Red Shoes again.

Destino! #NJPW #G125 pic.twitter.com/kfFNeqrotL

— LARIATOOOOO!!! (@SenorLARIATO) July 29, 2015

BLOCK A
– Tetsuya Naito – 6 POINTS [3 wins, 1 loss]
– Bad Luck Fale – 6 POINTS [3 wins, 1 loss]
– Katsuyori Shibata – 6 POINTS [3 wins, 1 loss]
– AJ Styles – 4 POINTS [2 wins, 2 losses]
– Hiroshi Tanahashi – 4 POINTS [2 wins, 2 losses]
– Kota Ibushi – 4 POINTS [2 wins, 2 losses]
– Togi Makabe – POINTS [2 wins, 2 losses]
– Hiroyoshi Tenzan – 2 POINTS [1 win, 3 losses]
– Doc Gallows – POINTS [1 win, 3 losses]
– Yano – 2 points [1 win, 3 losses]

* End scene.

* Thanks for reading.

“I’m out…”