New Japan G1 Climax Day 10 Review

Yup. This is super late. Sorry! To make a long story short, for the first time in what seems like forever, there were major Ustream problems last night. The full pass stream was down, and was never put up. The individual ticket stream, however, was running fine with no problems. I had to wait for an email to get a code to watch the rest of the card. In that time span, I missed four matches. By the time the show finished, it was six in the morning and I needed some sleep. So here we are now, this report is FINALLY up. Sorry, but it was out of my hands. Hopefully the last two shows aren’t riddled with problems like tonight. Enough complaining/excuses/whatever, let’s get on with the report!

Tomoaki Honma vs. Satoshi Kojima: As with every other crowd, they immediately get into Honma. They trade back and forth early, but soon Kojima starts doing his comeback. Honma breaks it and manages to lay him out long enough to do a headbutt, and even a blockbuster off the middle rope. Kojima responds by planting him with a diamond cutter. Kojima hits a brainbuster, but Honma kicks out. He goes for the lariat, but Honma responds with a headbutt. He tries for the top rope headbutt, but it doesn’t connect. It never seems to from that area. Honma headbutts him, but Kojima responds with a HUGE lariat to score the pinfall. Pretty basic stuff, but it was good. ***

Bad Luck Fale vs. Davey Boy Smith Jr: This was a slow paced, fine match but nothing memorable at all. Fale worked on him for a while until he misses a splash. DBS works on him a bit, including hitting a bad looking side suplex, but Fale cuts him off. DBS avoids the Bad Luck Fall and tries to put in a sharpshooter but Fale grabs the ropes right as it’s implemented. Fale takes him out with the grenade for the win. **1/4

Fale hits the Grenade #NJPW #G124 http://t.co/KdthMMc1tT

— LARIATOOOOO!!! (@SenorLARIATO) August 6, 2014

Tetsuya Naito vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan: Unlike other matches in this tournament where Tenzan was the clear favorite, here there were a bunch of Naito chants at the start. Naito runs wild at the start, sending Tenzan down with a dropkick but when he gets to the apron gets taken out with a clothesline. Naito counters with a neckbreaker and a running dropkick to the head. Tenzan takes him down with a spinning heel kick and locks in the anaconda vice, but Naito quickly goes to the ropes. Naito tries to counter with a lariat but gets taken down again with the anaconda vice. Naito counters with a rollup, then does a bridging one for only two. Tenzan does the mongolian chops but Naito sidesteps and hits a German. Tries for the stardust press…and executes it for the pinfall! Clumsy at times, but otherwise a great match. ***3/4

Stardust Press #NJPW #G124 http://t.co/xEkSkoW4lv — LARIATOOOOO!!! (@SenorLARIATO) August 6, 2014

Karl Anderson vs. Minoru Suzuki: Suzuki outgrapples Anderson at the start, working on his arm and a leg. Anderson chops him to the apron but Suzuki catches him and wraps his arm on the ropes with an armbar submission, sending him out of the ring and onto the floor upon release. Anderson gets introduced to the barricade, where Suzuki works his arm within the barricade. Anderson regains control but misses a boot to the corner and Suzuki takes advantage. Suzuki escapes a gun stun and hits a sleeper, but Anderson counters and nails the gun stun for the  pinfall. This was fine. ***1/4

Gun Stun! #NJPW #G124 http://t.co/v94MQ1Bo4i

— LARIATOOOOO!!! (@SenorLARIATO) August 6, 2014

Toru Yano vs.Togi Makabe: Yano jumps him at the start, but it doesn’t last long as he gets thrown into the barricade, then gets posted. Yano actually takes him down with a clothesline and does his pose. Makabe takes him down with a big lariat but misses the king kong knee drop. Yano distracts the referee so he can low blow Makabe, but Makabe responds with a low blow of his own, only for Yano to low blow Makabe again and roll him up for the three count. I have no idea why Yano got so many wins in this tournament (ok, only 3, but still) other than they needed to change things around when Ibushi went down. 1/2* Yujiro Takahashi vs. AJ Styles: They’re polite at the bell, but Yujiro immediately starts eye poking and the like.  Yujiro throws him into the barricades where they do a 19 count spot. Some back and forth leads to Yujiro sending AJ to the outside then follows with a huge suicide dive through the middle rope to the floor. Back in the ring, AJ gets the advantage and tries a bloody sunday DDT but Yujiro counters with the perfectplex. Yujiro and AJ exchange a bit, including a missed attempt at a Styles Clash, but AJ gets the bloody sunday DDT, then follows with the Styles Clash and he’s victorious. Pretty good, but the crowd was dead for a lot of it. ***1/4 Lance Archer vs. Kazuchika Okada: Okada winds up on the outside early after a big boot by Archer that sends him off the apron and onto the barricade. Archer works on him for most of the match, but Okada eventually cuts him off and gets his offense in. Okada gets a big boot, but misses a tombstone, only to reverse Archer’s reverse DDT but Archer holds onto the ropes when Okada attempts a dropkick. Archer hits the texas tornado and follows with an overhead suplex to the outside. Chokeslam follows, but only a nearfall. Archer then goes for the moonsault, but Okada rolls out of the way. Archer charges at Okada, but eats a dropkick. Archer actually grabs him for the blackout, but Okada counters, hits the tombstone, and follows with the Rainmaker for the pinfall. Really great stuff here that told a great story. ***3/4

Huge chokeslam from Lance Archer!! #NJPW #G124 http://t.co/czKyALsfRS — LARIATOOOOO!!! (@SenorLARIATO) August 6, 2014

Yuji Nagata vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi: Crowd is into Nagata for this match. Nagata lands some stiff kicks and locks in a figure four. Nagata’s definitely working on the legs, sending stiff kicks down there. Tanahashi finally takes Nagata’s leg and gives a dragon screw. From there, here hits his senton. Tanahashi then goes to work on Nagata’s legs, locking in a cloverleaf. He hits the slingbrade and scoop piledriver (that he calls the twelve six) but misses a high fly flow. Nagata locks in his armbar. Tanahashi gets up and starts slapping him, but Nagata has none of it and counters with some slaps of his own and hits a brainbuster. Tanahashi escapes for a moment but gets waffled with a rolling kick. Nagata goes for the side suplex, but Tanahashi crawls under him and grabs his legs, rolling up for the three count. This was really good, but the crowd hampered it a bit by largely being dead. ***3/4

Tomohiro Ishii vs. Katsuyori Shibata: This should be good. They pummeled each other to start. Ishii’s shoulder is taped up big time. Shibata takes him down, but Ishii gets right back up. Shibata sits down and invites Shibata to kick him. He does, then Ishii follows suit. More punches lead to Shibata being taken down to the floor. Ishii follows with a back suplex and goes for a splash, but Shibata counters and pummels him with elbows and hits the running dropkick, but Ishii immediately follows with a huge lariat. Wow. More punching leads to Ishii getting the brunt of it, but immediately follows with a lariat. Shibata locks in a sleeper. He takes him to the ground and gets in an armbar on his taped arm but Ishii immediately puts his foot on the bottom rope. He rolls to the outside where he holds his shoulder in pain, even getting it checked out by the doctor. Shibata mocks him, putting one arm behind his back as they exchange elbows. Ishii surprises him by hitting a huge German suplex. He misses the brainbuster as they go back and forth (including at one point Shibata just straight up chopping Ishii in the face) until Shibata nails him with a HUGE spinning backfist that looked devastating. He hits the GTS then follows with the penalty kick. Hell of a match and about as stiff as you would expect. ****1/2

Huge slap from Shibata floors Ishii! #NJPW #G124 http://t.co/nj1KtOFvWS

— LARIATOOOOO!!! (@SenorLARIATO) August 6, 2014

Katsuyori Shibata defeats Tomohiro Ishii with the Go 2 PK combo!! #NJPW #G124 http://t.co/rBa7x5cGsC — LARIATOOOOO!!! (@SenorLARIATO) August 6, 2014

Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Doc Gallows: Weird that this is a main event. I understand why, but the last two matches seem a better fit to headline than this one. Nakamura eats a huge boot that sends him to the floor by Gallows. Gallows works him over until he gets nailed with a kick by Nakamura. He starts doing his offense, including the shaky leg in the corner. Nakamura knees him then goes for the boma ye but Gallows hits a huge big boot and hits the Gallows pole for the nearfall. He goes for another, but Nakamura counters and hits a flying knee from the middle rope. Nakamura tries for an armbar, but Gallows gets up and powerbombs him for another nearfall. Gallows poll time, but Nakamura hits a jumping knee, a boma ye, then follows with another in the middle rope, then a third and pins Gallows. A fun main event, but nothing more. ***1/2

Shinsuke Nakamura defeats Doc Gallows with the Boma-Ye! #NJPW #G124 http://t.co/DJuwpAREeV

— LARIATOOOOO!!! (@SenorLARIATO) August 6, 2014

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Most of this show was really good, but pales in comparison to other nights. Only match that really stood out was the Shibata/Ishii encounter which never fails to not be awesome. By New Japan standards, this was just a show with one really great match. By any other standard, this was a great show. By Monday’s Raw standards, this was the best show of all time across all planes of the universe.

VOW G1 Pick’Em Standings (updated: August 6)

G1 Championship Scenarios (via Kevin Conway: https://twitter.com/avalanchestyle)

The only people who can still win Block B are Styles and Okada:

• Okada wins the block if he beats Suzuki OR if Styles loses to Makabe OR if he and Styles both go to draws in their matches.
• Styles wins the block if he beats Makabe and Okada doesn’t beat Suzuki OR if Styles goes to a draw with Makabe and Suzuki beats Okada.

Basically, Styles wins the block if he gets more points in his Night 11 match than Okada. Otherwise, Okada wins it.

The only people who can still win Block A are Tanahashi, Nakamura and Fale:

• Tanahashi wins the block if he beats Smith OR if he goes to a draw with Smith and Nakamura doesn’t beat Fale.
• Nakamura wins the block if he doesn’t lose to Fale and Smith beats Tanahashi OR if he beats Fale and Tanahashi goes to a draw with Smith.
• Fale wins the block if he beats Nakamura and Smith beats Tanahashi.

So, if the Tanahashi-Smith match is earlier on the Night 11 card than Nakamura-Fale, it probably means Tanahashi will lose to Smith, in which case the Nakamura-Fale match would decide the Block B winner.