New Japan Pro Wrestling: G1 Climax 25 Night Six Review
Location: Beppu, Japan inside the Beppu B-Con Plaza
New Japan announced at the beginning of the show that Shinsuke Nakamura would be out tonight and that Michael Elgin would be placed into the final tag match of the undercard instead. Michael Elgin also receives his first 2 points of the tournament by forfeit. They said it will be wait and see on Nakamura and that he is not out of the tournament as of yet. Nakamura was the favorite to win for pretty much everyone and if he has to miss significant matches or perhaps even the whole tournament, it will really make Gedo have to work some magic with the booking of the rest of the G1 Climax.
After the masterclass in wrestling that we received from the final three matches on Sunday, the B Block would have a lot to live up to coming into tonight. Let’s see if they were able to deliver anything close to what we saw previously. New Japan also once again changed the production on this show. The multiple camera setup remains, but gone is the dubbed music and commentary for this show.
Match 1: Captain New Japan, Tiger Mask IV, & Jushin “Thunder” Liger vs. David Finlay Jr., Jay White, & Ryusuke Taguchi
Winners: Captain New Japan, Tiger Mask IV, & Jushin Liger (After a Tiger Driver on Jay White)
The running theme of this match was that Liger and Tiger Mask IV have been around long enough to know that Captain New Japan is a loser. So, they didn’t want to tag him in, especially since they were only facing a couple of Young Lions and Taguchi. When they did, of course he missed his moves and Liger got upset at him. The one benefit of having to lose one of the G1 matches, is a lot of the undercard matches got more time. Taguchi ran wild with ass offense, Jay White did his dropkick, and Finlay Jr. did his uppercuts. Taguchi even accidentally hit his tag partners two different times as well for a touch of comedy. The ending sequence saw Captain New Japan excluded from participating, even though he was in the ring, as Liger and Tiger connected with the Palm Strike and Tiger Driver combo on Jay White for the win. This had the right amount of comedy and some decent tag team moves for an opener. Poor CNJ getting picked on by his teammates was probably the most entertaining part of the whole thing. ** ¼ *
Match 2: Cody Hall & Doc Gallows (Bullet Club) vs. Toru Yano & YOSHI-HASHI (CHAOS)
Winners: Toru Yano & YOSHI-HASHI (After a Swanton Bomb on Hall)
Poor Toru Yano, he definitely got the worst out of that Headbutt from Tenzan on night five. He is now sporting a big black eye and he’s wearing some kind of clear bandage on top of the normal bandage from the cut. Due to this, Yano really didn’t play much of a role in the match. He did get a funny spot where he kept doing his taunt and he caught Gallows both times and then ducked under and grabbed Gallows by the ears. YOSHI-HASHI dished out and took most of the punishment. Gallows and Hall took YOSHI to the outside and beat on him there for a bit to start. There was some nice double team stuff here from Gallows and Hall, including a Double Big Boot. YOSHI-HASHI gives Hall a Neckbreaker and Lariat and immediately goes up for the Swanton and Team CHAOS wins. If you look up the meaning of the word “fine” in the dictionary, this match would be the summation of that. Everything was fine and that’s it. **
Match 3: Katsuyori Shibata, Yohei Komatsu, & (NWA World Champion) Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Kota Ibushi, (CMLL World Welterweight Champion) Mascara Dorada, & (NEVER Openweight Champion) Togi Makabe
Winners: Kota Ibushi, Mascara Dorada, & Togi Makabe (After a Dorada Driver on Yohei Komatsu)
Things picked up here for the tag matches, as Makabe and Tenzan had a nice stand off and exchange of blows early. Shibata and Ibushi would exchange holds and grappling stuff. Dorada was tagged in and then it started feeling like a match, as Shibata would give a running boot to Ibushi to knock him off the apron just because Shibata felt like doing it. Dorada and Yohei would work most of the match and had some interesting exchanges. I’ve said this many times before, but Yohei Komatsu is ready to branch out from being a Young Lion and become part of the main roster. Dorada also deserves to be much more in the limelight in the Juniors division than he is. He is so good, but we’ve only seen him in that short program with Kenny Omega. Yohei got a hurricanrana early and also hit a Superplex. We also got to see a nice mixed bag from Dorada as he did his Rope Walk Dropkick, but an even more impressive rope walk Swanton. Then we got to see him hit a German Suplex and a Top Rope DDT. Makabe also took out Tenzan with a Powerslam and Ibushi kicked Shibata to the outside and hit his beautiful Springboard Moonsault too. This didn’t have the greatest of teases for the G1 matches coming tomorrow, but the action between Yohei and Dorada made up for it. ***
Match 4: Hiroshi Tanahashi, Tetsuya Naito, & Michael Elgin vs. Bad Luck Fale, AJ Styles, & Tama Tonga (All Bullet Club)
Winners: Hiroshi Tanahashi, Tetsuya Naito, & Michael Elgin (After Naito hit his Modified Standing Sliced Bread on Tonga)
This is where you see the switch due to Nakamura’s injury, as Michael Elgin gets paired with Tanahashi and Naito, which made for an interesting match. Even though this match wasn’t supposed to include Elgin, they still figured out a way to make him do some things. Elgin having AJ up for the Stalling Suplex and AJ having to call over Fale to help him was pretty funny. Elgin and Fale had a nice big man stand off as well. Naito did not particularly care for the way Tanahashi would tag him into the match and he took his frustration out on AJ, giving AJ a nasty Eye Rake and then tagging in Elgin in disgust. The match mainly centered on each member of the Bullet Club working over Tanahashi (as he’s the only one that made sense for it.) Tanahashi would fight back here and there, but he was in trouble pretty much until Naito decided he felt like wrestling. Then there was no hope for the Bullet Club. Things broke down towards the end and turned into a big move fest, which was fun because you don’t see that all the time in NJPW tag matches. Usually it’s just guys going to the outside and controlling the other opponents until the finish happens. This left things clear for Naito to do his new finisher on Tonga and put another one in the column for Naito’s heel character. This was kind of slow and Tanahashi didn’t get a whole lot of reaction during the heat segment either. Things picked up at the end once Naito got involved and made the match really interesting. They told a nice story with Naito throughout and that’s really the big reason to watch this match.*** ¼ *
Before we get to the G1 matches, this would be a good time for a reminder of the participants in each block…
A Block Participants: AJ Styles (2nd consecutive appearance), Bad Luck Fale (2nd consecutive appearance), Doc Gallows (IWGP Tag Team Champion, 2nd consecutive appearance) (All Bullet Club) Kota Ibushi (2015 New Japan Cup Winner, 2nd appearance), Toru Yano (CHAOS, 10th appearance), Togi Makabe (G1 Winner in 2009, NEVER Openweight Champion, GBH, 12th consecutive appearance), Hiroyoshi Tenzan (G1 Winner in 2003, 2004, & 2006, NWA World Champion, 20th appearance), Hiroshi Tanahashi (G1 Winner in 2007, 14th consecutive appearance), Katsuyori Shibata (3rd consecutive appearance), Tetsuya Naito (G1 Winner in 2013, 6th consecutive appearance, Los Ingobernables)
B Block Participants: Kazuchika Okada (Defending G1 Champion, also won in 2012, IWGP Heavyweight Champion, CHAOS, 4th consecutive appearance), Shinsuke Nakamura (G1 Winner in 2011, CHAOS, 12th appearance), Tomohiro Ishii (CHAOS, 3rd consecutive appearance), Karl Anderson (IWGP Tag Team Champion, Bullet Club, 6th consecutive appearance), Yujiro Takahashi (Bullet Club, 6th consecutive appearance), Tomoaki Honma (GBH, 2nd consecutive appearance), Michael Elgin (ROH, first appearance), Satoshi Kojima (G1 Winner in 2010, 14th appearance), Yuji Nagata (G1 Winner in 2001, 17th consecutive appearance), Hirooki Goto (G1 Winner in 2008, IWGP Intercontinental Champion, 8th consecutive appearance)
G1 Climax Matches All Block B
Match 5: (2001 G1 Winner) Yuji Nagata (2 points) vs. Yujiro Takahashi (0 Points) (Bullet Club)
Winner: Yujiro Takahashi (After Hitting Miami Shine)
Only Cody Hall comes out with Yujiro, I guess he’s lost too many times in the tournament already that everyone left him. Moving on from that, after we get past Nagata and Yujiro exchanging holds, we actually get a nice match here. Mainly because Yujiro actually uses psychology and builds a story, not just beating up the other guy for five minutes and then the other guy coming back. Yujiro tricks Nagata into going to the outside, where Cody Hall is lying in wait. Hall beats up Nagata with body shots and then Yujiro whips Nagata into the barricade back first and then chest first and then whips Nagata into the ring apron chest first as well. He gives Nagata a Rib Breaker at one point as well and gives Nagata straight body punches. So, when Nagata starts his comeback there are times when Nagata can’t do something like lift Yujiro up for a Suplex because his chest is in too much pain. See how that’s instantly more interesting? Nagata has some nice counters like blocking the Tokyo Pimps into the Exploder in the corner and the Belly to Belly he hits on Yujiro was nice. Yujiro does use some trickery for a near fall when he pushes the referee away and connects with a low blow for a near fall, but quickly connects with the Miami Shine for the absolutely surprising win. As I said earlier, I wasn’t expecting much out of this and I came way liking this one a lot. Kudos to both men for working something smart, telling a story, and now Yujiro is on the board. ***
Match 6: (IWGP Intercontinental Champion) Hirooki Goto (2 points) vs. Tomoaki Honma (0 points)
Winner: Hirooki Goto (After Hitting Shouten-Kai)
Finally, we get the Hirooki Goto that can have good matches and wouldn’t you know it is against Tomoaki Honma who has been secretly delivering in every match. Honma does his usual going for the Kokeshi too early spot, then Goto counters by working on the neck of Honma with a chinlock and a headscissor of all things, which forces Honma to use his legs to get to the ropes. Honma and Goto get into this insane trading of blows that gets more intense after each one. The crowd comes alive during it too and by the time Honma hits his Deadlift Suplex they are ready to really get into it. Honma does his usual stuff, hits the Kokeshi and then pulls Goto to the middle for a Single Leg Crab spot that has Goto exasperated by the end of it. Goto gets his usual comeback that ends with the Backdrop Suplex. Honma then goes a little nuts with Kokeshi’s, as he does a Rocket Kokeshi to break a Lariat and then one to Goto’s back, which he’s worked on a lot of the match. The finish comes after Honma misses a Top rope Kokeshi, kicks out of an Urushi-Koroshi, Honma rolls up Goto off a Shouten-Kai attempt that makes the crowd bite hard on the near fall. Honma blocks one Lariat, can’t block the second and then falls to the Shouten-Kai. These two had a hellacious match just doing some stiff stuff that I really enjoyed. Honma once again is up to the task and Goto finally puts it all together to give us something where he looks like a strong Intercontinental Champion that he is. *** ¾ *
Match 7: (IWGP Tag Team Champion) Karl Anderson (4 Points) (Bullet Club) vs. Tomohiro Ishii (4 Points) (CHAOS)
Winner: Tomohiro Ishii (After Hitting the Brainbuster)
Once again another surprise as Anderson gets with the right opponent and delivers a great match. It seemed like we might get more of the same from Anderson after the beginning counter fest, but they reeled it in and delivered another psychology driven match. Anderson again went to something he’s done in his first two matches, taking out his opponent on the outside to gain a quick advantage and have to wait for them to comeback in after a long count. This time though, Ishii is smart to it and SLAMS Anderson’s head into the apron. Ishii eventually gets knocked down due to a Bicycle Kick on the apron. He comes back in at 11 and Anderson goes for a kick again, but this time Red Shoes is really late to start the count. Once again, the storyline between Red Shoes and the Bullet Club rears its head and I love it.
A lot of the rest of the match is Anderson using various neckbreakers, including one of the package variety and a top rope one to continually work on Ishii’s neck. He also toys with Ishii plenty of times by kicking him in the head and slapping him, which builds the tension and angers Ishii even more. Ishii is able to get a desperation Powerslam and at another point a desperation German Suplex, but Anderson continues the punishment. Anderson at one point went for the Gun Stun and Ishii just goes down in a heap, it almost looks like he collapsed from the pain, which was just beautiful storytelling. Ishii is one of the best sellers in this entire company. He makes the pain feel real and that is an art in of itself. The action picks up at the end as Anderson once again taunts Ishii and this time Ishii is having none of it, as we get into a counter fest, but Anderson eventually wins out with a TKO Gun Stun for a near fall. Anderson makes the mistake of Headbutting Ishii, Ishii ends it with his trademark three moves and Ishii leads the block with 6 points.
This is the standout match of this show and though Ishii hasn’t had a bad match yet, he and Anderson put on their best match of this tournament. The psychology of working Ishii’s neck played through the entire match and it just kept building and building to the crescendo of Ishii finally overcoming. This isn’t quite at the level of some of the A Block stuff, but it is up there for best match of this block for sure. ****
Match 8: MAIN EVENT: (IWGP Heavyweight Champion) Kazuchika Okada vs. (2010 G1 Winner) Satoshi Kojima
Winner: Kazuchika Okada (After Hitting The Rainmaker)
For me, this didn’t get to the great feel that the Honma match had on night four. Both guys worked this match pretty well and Kojima felt equal to Okada, the same belief wasn’t there for me I guess. Okada hit a Hangman’s DDT off the barricade, which is one of his trademark spots when a match is gonna a bit longer. Kojima didn’t get to do his big three moves in one motion like he normally does, as Okada blocked the Machine Gun Chops with another DDT. Kojima would finally get the elbow in the corner, after having to get Okada down with a Cutter. Kojima is able to hit a Brainbuster and a Super Cutter from the top rope as well for a near fall. Okada then falls down when Kojima calls for the Lariat and goes to the corner to trick Kojima to run over there and then Okada takes over for a bit. Kojima is able to duck under the Rainmaker, but Okada is right there with a Fireman’s Carry for 2. Kojima would go on to block the Tombstone and the Dropkick as well, but eventually after one last attempt at a Lariat, Okada would keep hold of Kojima and flatten him with the Rain Maker for another win. This had the feeling of trying to be epic, but didn’t get close. In fact, two of the matches before this were much better in my opinion. *** ½ *
Here are the G1 Climax 25 standings after night six…
A Block: Hiroshi Tanahashi, AJ Styles, Kota Ibushi, Tetsuya Naito, Katsuyori Shibata, and Bad Luck Fale (4 points), Togi Makabe, Toru Yano, Hiroyoshi Tenzan (2 points), Doc Gallows (0 points
B Block: Kazuchika Okada and Tomohiro Ishii (6 points), Karl Anderson and Hirooki Goto (4 points), Shinsuke Nakamura, Yuji Nagata, Satoshi Kojima, Michael Elgin, and Yujiro Takahashi (2 points) and Tomoaki Honma (0 points)
FINAL RATING: 8.5 I know it seems like I’ve said this quite a few times in my reviews, but this was probably the best night of all around action. All of the G1 matches delivered, the last two tag matches in the undercard were fun to watch for different reasons and overall a really solid evening of storytelling and wrestling. I’d recommend going back and watching Goto vs. Honma and Ishii vs. Anderson for sure. But there is not one bad match on this show and let’s see how the A block does to counter this. I’ll be back some time tomorrow with a review of night seven.
