Good morning, and we are back!
It is Night 6 of the B Block fo G1 Climax, and while Kenny Omega is still the sole leader, the only thing that’s clear about the eventual winner is that if you, for some insane reason, bet on Adam Page or Yoshi-Hashi to win the whole thing, you are straight out of luck. Tonight, Kenny Omega faces a very tough opponent he has never stood across from before, and that is the submission master, Zack Sabre Jr. So, let’s head down to Kagoshima Arena, and find out what New Japan has in store for us now.
I must again apologize for not keeping up with the A Block as much, but I have only watched one night from that one in entirety. Hiroshi Tanahashi currently has the sole lead there, but with four men in pursuit, nothing is clear there yet.
Bad Luck Fale and Tanga Loa vs Michael Elgin and Shota Umino
Loa continues to the the announcer for his group. Not that Elgin doesn’t deserve this position, IMO, but he has definitely done something wrong to end up in it. Umino seems to be gaining body mass, though he is easily the smallest man in the ring. Just when things were going well for Elgin’s team Tanga Loa hit Apeshit on Umino (basically, a reverse piledriver, but all the way down, no knees).
Adam Page and Chase Owens vs Togi Makabe and Toa Henare
Adam Page, being on the apron, superkicked Makabe off, forearmed and big booted Henare, slingshot clotheslined him and finished with a belly-to-back piledriver.
Jay White and YOH vs Yoshi-Hashi and SHO
Now, this is interesting. I wonder if Roppongi 3K will attack Jay White after the match. Jay White is buddy-buddy with YOH at the beginning, and offers to go in first. However, when he does, he tells Yoshi-Hashi that this doesn’t matter, this isn’t G1 Climax and falls down and offers to take a pin. Yoshi-Hashi signals no and gets nailed when his back is turned. YOH refuses to tag in. but gets tagged when not looking. On the next tag Jay White starts whipping SHO into the guardrail and gets confronted by YOH; when Jay White holds SHO up for YOH to hit, YOH refuses. In the middle of argument, SHO dropkicks them both and tags Yoshi-Hashi. YOH also pulls away the chair, when Jay White tries to hit SHO on the outside. This leads to YOH being one on one with Yoshi-Hashi, and he is going ok for a while, until Yoshi-hashi applies the cross armbreaker, and Jay White, predictably, doesn’t make the save. Yoshi-hashi tries going after Jay White after the match, remember, all these guys are in the same group, Chaos.
Hiroshi Tanahashi and David Finlay vs EVIL and Bushi
EVIL pinned Finlay with the STO. There were more cheers for Tanahashi than the LIJ.
Kazuchika Okada and Gedo vs Minoru Suzuki and El Desperado
The best tag match of the night. Desperado pinned Gedo with a spinning facebuster, while Suzuki had Okada in a sleeper.
Tomohiro Ishii vs Tama Tonga
After repeated inteference by Tanga Loa and Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga was finally able to reverse Ishii’s brainbuster into a Tongan Twist For the win. On the exit ramp Tonga said: “What’s a yard compared to the world? My world. You know where to find me.” More words directed at Reigns, but what is this all coming to?
Sanada vs Juice Robinson
Juice gets the Pulp Friction in after a couple of reverses. This means Sanada’s push is over and Juice Robinson’s storyline for this Climax is that he comes back in the second half.
Tetsuya Naito vs Toru Yano
A couple of hilarious spots in this match as when Naito did Tranquillo, Yano walked up behind him and did his “I don’t know what’s going on” face, then started stomping him. In another Yano ended up taped to the guardrail and had to run into the ring with it to stop a count-out. More competitive match than Yano would normally get against a top name. Naito wins with Destino, then swept Yano out of the ring with a turnbuckle pad, probably implying Yano was garbage and nto worth his time.
Kenny Omega vs Zack Sabre Jr
Great match, with Sabre’s creativity shining through as far as reversals/blocks of Omega’s classic moves, like sleeper for “you can’t escape”, armbar for the pointed finger, half a crab for running knee, etc. Omega tended to jump too quickly from spot to spot as usual, not selling enough, but he won with a pinning combination. Definitely one of those matches you want to see again, on bigger stage.
Kota Ibushi vs Hirooki Goto
I was wondering why this was the main event, when Omega was fighting ZSJ, but this turned out to be the best match of the night. The kind of fight, where you can say “everything, but the kitchen sink” even though not a single foreign object was used. Just one close finish after another, with a punch of different moves, till Ibushi hit a power bomb and a sliding knee.
Looks like Block A is coming down to Omega, Naito and Ibushi. Asides from these three guys, only Sanada and ZSJ retain a razor-thin chance of making it.
