Csonka’s NJPW G1 Climax Day Three Review

NJPW G1 Climax Day Three 7.24.15

OFFICIAL RESULTS
– Block A Match: Kota Ibushi defeated Doc Gallows via pin [**¾]
– Block A Match: Bad Luck Fale defeated Togi Makabe via pin [**]
– Block A Match: AJ Styles defeated Toru Yano via submission [***½]
– Block A Match: Katsuyori Shibata defeated Tetsuya Naito via pin [****]
– Block A Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated Hiroyoshi Tenzan via pin [****]

* 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.

Kota Ibushi defeated Doc Gallows: Gallows lost night one to Tenzan in a really bad match, so he’s looking for redemption here. Ibushi lost to Tanahashi on night one, but did so in a MOTY contending effort. This ended up being a fine way to kick off the evening’s tournament matches. Gallows appeared to be working hard here, and Ibushi sold like a champ for him. While I am fine with Gallows in tag matches, he often (ok, VERY OFTEN) disappoints in his singles efforts (last year’s G1 where he had main event opportunities and did not make the best of them) so it was nice to see him actually perform well here. I didn’t expect too much from this (even with Ibushi involved) but I felt the match was rock solid, and that the right guy won.

Bad Luck Fale defeated Togi Makabe: Tetsuya Naito defeated Bad Luck Fale on night one in a match that was not good, while Togi Makabe defeated Toru Yano in one of those “it’s a match” matches. Well, this didn’t suck, but it was just a match. It didn’t last too long, and wasn’t horrible. It just existed. Fale scored the win, moving on.

AJ Styles defeated Toru Yano: AJ Styles defeated Katsuyori Shibata on night one in a great match, and I discussed Yano’s match in the previous bout. Overall this was the best tournament match on the show so far, and felt fun. Yano of course did his usual tactics, while Styles did his usual and it just meshed together very nicely. Styles worked the leg a bit, which would pay off late. I can do without Yano at times, but was actually really entertained with his cheating here, as they developed some nice near falls for him and the crowd reacted well. Styles would make his comeback and win with the calf slicer. I liked the finish, as it played off of the leg work and also a win with the calf slicer now sets that as a viable finish, which in a bigger match later on in the tournament could lead to some good drama and a near finish if done right.

Katsuyori Shibata defeated Tetsuya Naito: Katsuyori Shibata lost to Styles on night one in a great match, while Tetsuya Naito defeated Bad Luck Fale in a match that was not good. This was fantastic, and Shibata is 2-2 in terms of great tournament bouts so far, and this was the new match of the night for the tournament matches. Shibata destroying fools with kicks and stiff strikes will always be entertaining to me, it looks good and just works because of his execution. Naito continued his heel evolution here, doing some nice work on his end and I have really enjoyed how he has done this over the last few weeks or so. Naito started to work over Shibata down the stretch, and made the mistake of slapping his repeatedly. Shibata then locked in the sleeper and weakened him enough to finish him off with the penalty kick. This was some really good stuff here, very enjoyable and I dug Shibata picking up the rebound victory.

Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated Hiroyoshi Tenzan: Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated Kota Ibushi n night one in a match of the year contender, while Hiroyoshi Tenzan defeated Doc Gallows in a shit match. The two stories from that night was that Tanahashi was rested and turned the clock back a few years and looked like the old Tanahashi, while Tenzan just looked like, well, old Tenzan. So when I saw that this was the main event of night three, I was concerned. Tanahashi was outstanding here, he is just so good in the big matches with almost anyone he faces. He not only does what he knows he needs to do, but he also is able to work to all of the strengths of his opponent, no matter their condition and or limitations. They had a great crowd that was completely into Tenzan, who was able to find that G1 magic as he dug deep to put on a very good performance. While he had some good near falls, the crowd believed that he was going to win when he worked the anaconda vice/anaconda buster combo. This was a great atmosphere for sure. I really cannot praise the work of Tanahashi enough here, he got much more out of Tenzan that I thought possible in 2015. This was a really good main event, closing off a nice stretch of tournament matches to close the show.

* End scene.

* Thanks for reading.

“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”