B Block - YOSHI-HASHI vs Tanga Loa

Decent opening contest. YOSHI-HASHI's new finisher is serving him well as he was able to counter Loa's finisher into the Crucifix Bomb to pick up a strong victory.


A Block - Ren Narita vs Gabe Kidd

I only just realised that Gabriel is now going by Gabe. That's a War Dog name if I ever heard one. For the third time in a row Gabe sneaks up behind his opponent as they walk down the rope. This time Gabe had a chair in hand, but Narita was ready, as he should be. Narita calmly knocked Gabe down on the ramp, strolled to the ring, and yelled for Gabe to bring the fight in the ring. Surprisingly, that's where the fight stayed, but it didn't stop Gabe from finding every way to bend the rules. He bit, he scratched, he exposed the turnbuckle. I love how obnoxious and straightforward Gabe is, but raising middle fingers to the audience and yelling "Fuck You!" after every heel move he does is too much. Tone it down, Gabe. Not much, just a little bit. You're coming across as a try hard.

I was expecting Narita to win this one for sure, so I was shocked when Gabe grabbed the ref to avert his vision, hit a low blow, then a piledriver for the three count. Exactly the same way he beat Hikuleo. Fair enough. It's working for him.


B Block - El Phantasmo vs Great O-Khan

ELP is already banged up and visibly nursing his neck even during his entrance. I'm not sure when the injury happened, but going nearly 20 minutes with Okada is not going to do much good for your neck.

This was a solid match, never a dull moment, and another surprise result. O-Khan ruthlessly exploited ELP's injury. Not only did he win, but he forced ELP to submit. A tombstone piledriver on the floor set up his version of the neck crank and that's game over. Fascinating finish because that's not a finisher for O-Khan, but rather a setup move. But I like it. ELP goes 0-3 which I certainly did not expect.


A Block - Chase Owens vs Hikuleo

Chase Owens actually decided to show some personality in this match. He dicked around a lot, enough to trick the less experienced
Hikuleo. Near the end of the match Owens feigned a knee injury, giving him time to covertly remove his kneepad and use it as a weapon. He followed up with a V-Trigger with the exposed knee to pick up the win.

Another result I would not have called. Hikuleo joins ELP in the losers club at 0-3.

Interesting that the wily veteran Chase Owens is able to dispatch of the youngsters Gabe Kidd and Hikuleo, but the equally young Kiyomiya made him look like a jobber. Goes to show Kiyomiya's wrestling is beyond his years - more on that later.


B Block - KENTA vs Will Ospreay

Ever since his arrival in NJPW, KENTA's ring work has been underwhelming. However he has found his niche as a character, with a low-impact heat-getting style that will serve him well in his twilight years. I no longer yearn for the KENTA of old, my favourite wrestler, but I cherish the moments when that KENTA emerges. Will Ospreay is one of the only wrestlers who can bring that out of KENTA, so it's no surprise that this match was awesome.

KENTA starts the match by attacking Ospreay as he climbs the turnbuckle during his entrance. He dons Ospreay's ring jacket and mocks his gesture. Ospreay fights back, but KENTA stays on top with ruthless aggression, taking Ospreay into the crowd and doing some serious damage culminating with a DDT on the hard floor. In 2023 Ospreay is leagues above KENTA, but the way KENTA has whipped Ospreay's ass, it makes me think Ospreay has temporarily regressed to a much lower level.

It took a lot of grind and hard work for Ospreay to get back into the fight, but KENTA kept coming, a fierce strike exchange puncutated by KENTA's devastating palm strikes. It all looked to be going KENTA's way. The ref got bumped. KENTA's ref bumps are always poorly-concealed accidents, but this one looked like a genuinely unintentional shove. A switch flipped in KENTA's brain, and here comes the Bullet Club cheater KENTA, who leaves the ring to grab some weaponry.

With KENTA's forward momentum gone, I felt this was the moment where Ospreay would capitalise and take the advantage, but nope. KENTA delivers a beating with the kendo stick, followed by a low blow and a title belt shot to the head. Lights out for Ospreay...nope! The match continues for a few more minutes, into an amazing finishing sequence. KENTA goes for the full throttle Busaiku knee, but Ospreay catches him on the rebound with a superkick, exactly the same type of superkick Taichi used to defeat Ospreay on day 1. KENTA is loopy, Ospreay delivers a nasty Hidden Blade, which would have done the job, but Ospreay establishes his dominance with a Stormbreaker, ending a brilliant contest.


A Block - Kaito Kiyomiya vs Shota Umino

Follow that, young'uns!

Kiyomiya has had a pretty easy G1 so far. He took a beating at the hands of Tsuji but Kiyomiya was never in any real danger. He beat Owens rather effortlessly. How much resistance would Shooter put up?

A lot, as it happens. Kiyomiya targeted Shota's leg early, but for the most part Shota was on top with his blend of speed, power and technique. Shota really does have all the tools. In fact it was going a little too smoothly for Shota. It seemed he had even more determination than his battle against rival Narita, shutting Kiyomiya down at every opportunity and delivering some big blows, but it was never enough. Shooter even managed to apply his new finisher, the Chono-taught STF, a dramatic moment where I thought Kiyomiya might give it up, but he made the ropes.

Kiyomiya found his way back into the match by going back to the leg. A Dragon Screw initiated a ruthless assault where Kiyomiya dropkicked the leg over and over again, including a missile dropkick to the knee. He applied a Figure Four Leg Lock. Two minutes of pure drama followed, Shota writhing in agony and getting pulled back to the middle of the ring the moment he got close to the ropes. Red Shoes may have thrown in the towel, but he was not reffing this match, so we all watched Shota suffer, refusing to quit. It reminded me of those Tanahashi-Suzuki wars.

Kiyomiya decided to release the hold and try to win another way. He hit all of his big moves except the Shining Wizard. Shota kicked out of every single one. On this day, Shota is impossible to beat. With 30 seconds to go, Shota somehow countered the Shining Wizard into a nasty Death Rider. It took 10 seconds to make the cover, but there was enough time left for the referee to count to 3. Kiyomiya kicked out at 2.999, and a few seconds later, the 20 minute time limit was reached. A draw.

Brilliant match. Did they surpass KENTA/Ospreay? I'm not sure. Certainly on the same level.

We have our third draw in the A Block. For the first time Kiyomiya was pushed to the limit, and Shota has found some real strength deep within him. If he can keep that strength, he will be a force to be reckoned with.

What I admired most was Kiyomiya's professionalism. He had a gameplan, stuck to it, didn't waste any time, just got on with the job. I admired his decision to release the Figure Four. Although it didn't work out as expected, it was a brave decision. Kiyomiya also knows how to build a really strong and compelling match. The comparisons to Okada are endless. Kiyomiya is great.


B Block - Kazuchika Okada vs Taichi

The two undefeated men in B Block face off. Taichi has come within a hair's breadth of beating Okada on multiple occasions, but he hasn't been able to get the job done. Is this the night? I had Taichi beating Okada before the G1 started, but now that Taichi defeated Ospreay, I doubt he will beat Okada as wel. But you never know.

From the start it's clear Okada didn't come to fuck around. He went for the kill very early, hitting a Tombstone and a discus lariat in the first minute. He went for Rainmaker, and CONNECTED! ONE! TWO THREE! NO FUCKING WAY!

In reality, Taichi ducked the Rainmaker, hit a huge forearm and a gamengiri. In the first minute both men are down and out as if they've wrestled for 20 minutes. But we're only just getting started. Okada took control with a DDT on the floor. He must have woke up on the wrong side of bed, because he had a perpetual scowl on his face the whole match, and wasn't teaching Taichi with much respect.

Okada should know better than to overlook Taichi. All of a sudden he was on the receiving end of Taichi's nasty kicks. Enzuigiris, gamengiris, buzzsaw kicks, you name it. Taichi was throwing out these kicks like Okada busts out his dropkicks. Every time he connected the tide turned in his favour. He was firing up over and over again and the crowd were right there with him. Okada was purely on the defensive, but Okada is a survivor, and he kicked out of each of Taichi's big moves. Taichi went for a powerbomb, but Okada backdropped him over his head, dropped down to his knees and tied Taichi up. The Okada rollup has got him out of many a tight spot, and for the first time he used it twice in one match. Second time was the charm. Okada pinned Taichi, and this really was the narrowest of escapes.

Okada resorting to that method to win is not a good sign - it seems his strength is fading. He struggled to beat O-Khan and El Phantasmo, what happens when he comes up against Ospreay?


A Block - SANADA vs Yota Tsuji

I've lost the energy to type lots of words. I'll just say that this was a fine main event, a great sequel to their Dominion main event, solid work all around. SANADA won with the Deadfall in a match that really could have gone either way.

What's worrying for the champ is that Yota was the clear crowd favourite. I understand why. Yota looks great, he has a winning smile, the most exciting moveset on the roster, and he's fresh. SANADA is boring by comparison.


Great day of G1 action with two MOTT candidates.

Glad to see Kiyomiya delivering. He is very much like a younger Okada. Still think he will be the "breakout" here with a lot taking notice of just how good he can be.

Jul 22, 2023 0:04:23 GMT Emperor said:

A Block - SANADA vs Yota Tsuji

I've lost the energy to type lots of words. I'll just say that this was a fine main event, a great sequel to their Dominion main event, solid work all around. SANADA won with the Deadfall in a match that really could have gone either way.

What's worrying for the champ is that Yota was the clear crowd favourite. I understand why. Yota looks great, he has a winning smile, the most exciting moveset on the roster, and he's fresh. SANADA is boring by comparison.


Great day of G1 action with two MOTT candidates.

Just to add to this, this match took place in SANADA's hometown. Yet the crowd was like 70/30 in favour of Yota. I get that he's new and exciting and going to have that going for him, but to be the clear crowd favourite in the Heavyweight Champ's home city? Yikes...

I don't see SANADA holding the title past Wrestle Kingdom, if he even holds it that long.

ELP revealed that an hour before his match with Okada, he received a call that his grandfather passed away. Fucking awful.

That is horrible. Have to go back and watch that match now.

D Block - Zack Sabre Jr. vs Alex Coughlin

I'm not sure what Zack did to be opening two shows in a row, but whatever.

Solid power vs technique match. Coughlin repeatedly found neat ways to power out of Zack's holds (his cravate escape was particularly stunning), but Zack was relentless and soon enough the inevitable happened. Zack caught Coughlin in a vicious armbar forcing an instant submission. Brute force never works against Zack.


C Block - Mikey Nicholls vs Tama Tonga

I tuned into the live stream just as Tonga hit the Gun Stun for the win. I didn't bother to watch the match back because I'm really not interested in either guy.


D Block - Shane Haste vs Hirooki Goto

Haste got a strong jump start with several explosive running kicks in the corner. Goto sold this great, either that or his ribs got banged up.

Despite the hot start the match did not last much longer. Two minutes later Goto rolled up Haste for an early three count. Maybe Goto did get hurt and they called an audible? Or Goto is trying to beat Yano for shortest average match time.


C Block - Eddie Kingston vs Henare

Another jump start as Henare blindsides Eddie as he is getting searched by the ref. The match was a pretty wild slugfest where Eddie was fighting from underneath the whole match.

Eddie has a taped up elbow and this prevented Kingston from building up as much momentum as he liked. On two occasions he fired up only to collapse in agony clutching his arms.

It was a great sell job that really helped Eddie pull the fans into the match. His emotional brand of selling is not normal in Japan and it's really helped him stand out and endear himself. It all paid off in the end. The match ended in a strike exchange. Eddie hit two Backfists. The second knocked Henare out. Kingston literally collapsed on top of Henare to make the three count.


D Block - Toru Yano vs Tetsuya Naito

Not understanding Japanese hurt my experience. Naito made his way down the ramp as slowly as possible, with Yano protesting furiously in the ring. By the time Naito got close to the ring, his music ended. The loop restarted and Naito ran up the ramp to do his entrance again :lol:

Once the bell finally rang there was even more stalling. Once they finally engaged, there was lots of rollups, a countout tease involving tape, and a final rollup from Naito to score the win.

My guess is they padded out this match to make up for lost time in the Goto match. All speculation of course.


C Block - Shingo Takagi vs Tomohiro Ishii

The thing about this match is, you know what you're gonna get, and everybody loves it, so let's just ring the bell and watch these guys smash into each other for 20 minutes.

That's exactly what they did, and it was great. The one surprise was Ishii busting out a dropkick to turn the battle in his favour, but besides that it was a lot of smash mouth strong style.

Takagi won after hitting Last of the Dragons with two minutes on the clock, getting his first win on the board.


D Block - Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Jeff Cobb

Tanahashi is getting more and more limited, especially so against a man with the size and bulk of Jeff Cobb. So this was a pretty bland match, Cobb adding some seasoning by mocking Tanahashi's gestures, including using the man himself as an air guitar.

Tanahashi is resourceful and found some nice offense, including a beautiful High Fly Flow that had the small drawback of missing a wrestler on the landing.

Cobb won the match by using Tanahashi's own Sling Blade to set up Tour of the Islands for another victory.

Cobb has dominated his last two G1 blocks, but had the misfortune of being in the same block as Okada both times. This time there is no Okada and he's already taken out Naito. It's looking good for the Imperial Unit, but the biggest obstacle left is his next opponent, ZSJ. And let's not forget the wildcard Yano is also in Cobb's future.


C Block - David Finlay vs EVIL

EVIL cheats, EVIL wins.

Wait, hold on. Got too hasty with the copy paste. I actually watched this EVIL match in full. Why? Because Bullet Club civil wars are always interesting, and these guys have made a special point to hype the match.

EVIL brings out the entire House of Torture. Finlay brings out Gedo and a War Dog, Gabe Kidd. The other War Dog ran into some technical problems earlier in the night.

Red Shoes calls out two other referees to manage the chaos, and it certainly is chaos. The two groups threaten to go to war several times. As for the match itself, EVIL started out on top, using many many eye rakes to take control. Finlay returned the favour later on. Both guys taunted a lot.

The match broke down when all three refs got bumped, the floodgates opened and everyone involved started brawling. It soon boiled down to Finlay vs EVIL again. Back and forth, Red Shoes gets bumped a second time, Dick Togo and Gedo return to the fray.

There are many shenanigans. Finlay receives the full HoT treatment of a Togo garotte, low blow, and chair Shots. EVIL's ego gets to his head when he spots Finlay's shillelagh. He grabs it, but doesn't see Gedo handing Finlay a title belt. Finlay wallops EVIL, then bashes him with the shillelagh, then hits Into Oblivion to win the war.

The match certainly delivered, but the post match did not. Finlay addressed the Bullet Club/HoT tension with the words "Keep your friends close but your enemies closer." An anticlimax if you ask me.

Jul 23, 2023 20:52:39 GMT Emperor said:

Technical difficulties...Doing this on my phone is hard.

How 🤯 ever managed it is beyond me.

Jul 23, 2023 21:05:23 GMT @ness said:

Jul 23, 2023 20:52:39 GMT Emperor said:

Technical difficulties...Doing this on my phone is hard.

How 🤯 ever managed it is beyond me.

Fixed now!

There was never phone difficulty. Emperor was just building up the comeback with HEAT.

Eddie breaking out the selling for Japan is something I did not expect. He is fantastic at selling body parts when he wants to be. He just rarely seems to do it.

Curious how often he returns to Japan after this.

I read the reviews on Finlay vs EVIL and I dunno how to feel. I think it's really telling that the most legitimate and threatening version of Bullet Club currently resides in AEW and is led by Jay White. But maybe that's the point?

They can do whatever they want in Japan. Bullet Club is a decade old over there and has sold all the t-shirts its gonna sell. So if they want to do goofy shit and experiment with new faces, I say go for it. You've got capable, proven hands on US soil selling new fancy gold t-shirts feuding with mother fucking CM Punk and the AEW tag team champions. You're good.

That being said...what an ugly, stupid main event. And what an even uglier and stupider aftermath. I'm skipping this show.

(completely different note...low key Aaron Henare has been amazing so far in this tournament...he deserves some praise for the work he's putting in...)

I understand the aftermath being a disappointment but the Finlay vs EVIL match itself was great. What are people complaining about? You had to expect shenanigans and interference, it couldn't have been more obvious. I thought they pulled it off pretty well.

B Block - Will Ospreay vs Great O-Khan

United Empire stablemates went at it, and there was no love loss. O-Khan was particularly violent, using a chair on the outside and even blowing mist into Ospreay's face while the referee was distracted. Unfortunately it wasn't enough. Ospreay came out on top in this wildly unpredictable match with his new move, the top rope corkscrew senton he also used to beat YOSHI-HASHI in the second round.

A Block - Shota Umino vs Gabe Kidd

Shota Umino enters through the crowd, so it's not possible for Gabe to ambush him during his entrance, right? Wrong! Gabe drew out a probability matrix of Korakuen Hall and calculated the entrance that Shota was most likely to use. And he was right! Shota is posing in the crowd, out comes Gabe from a side door and the ambush begins.

Gabe must have read my comments from last time because there was far fewer middle-finger-fuck-you taunts and a greater variety of heat tactics. Most notably Gabe had a lot of fun desecrating Shota's ring jacket. He also spit in Shota's face a couple of times. But Shota had levelled up during his war with Kiyomiya and he hadn't lost that increased power as he survived the Kidd onslaught, including blocking a low blow, and eventually hit Death Rider to score his first win of the tournament. Things are looking up for Shooter.

B Block - KENTA vs Taichi

The match started with a taunt-off. Taichi holds the KOPW belt, and KENTA holds some other belt. The word DEFY is on it. That's all I know. Probably a jobber belt from some jobber company. My point is, they had a belt-off. Kanemaru was asked into the ring to be the judge. He is Taichi's stablemate but was clearly unbiased. After several rounds of cheering fans, he raised Taichi's hand. For me it was pretty close.

After that KENTA jumps starts the match. There was a few minutes of shenanigans. Taichi avoided a belt shot and appeared to have the upper hand, but KENTA blocked the Buzzsaw kick with the belt, then walloped Taichi with the same belt and rolled him up for a quick three count.


A Block - Chase Owens vs Yota Tsuji

Chase Owens is 33 years old, believe it or not, but he is one of the veterans of A Block. He showed his smarts with a clever gameplan. Owens is fully aware of Tsuji's expansive moveset, and his desire to hit all of his moves. So Owens employed a counterpunch strategy, like former ally Jay White, and it worked very well. He neutralised Tsuji, not allowing him to string more than two moves together. However it somehow unravelled for Owens. Tsuji was too forceful, and eventually connected with the Spear to pick up his first G1 victory and his first singles victory since returning from excursion.


B Block - El Phantasmo vs Tanga Loa

I only watched this match a few hours ago and I forgot everything except the finish. In the first round, Tanga Loa lost after his finisher was reversed into YOSHI-HASHI's new finisher, the Crucifix Bomb. Loa clearly didn't patch that hold since ELP won with the same counter. He chose the tamer Crucifix rollup instead of the bomb, but it was still enough for the three. ELP's rough streak comes to an end.


A Block - Ren Narita vs Hikuleo

The tail-enders of A Block fought to get their names on the scoreboard. Hikuleo is a strange wrestler. He's 6'9, has a great physique, and he's pretty athletic yet...what is he? By definition he should be a monster, but he's the least intimidating giant wrestler I've ever seen. We talk about Narita and Shota needing to find themselves, but they are far closer to finding themselves than Hikuleo is.

The equally struggling Ren Narita struggled for a long time to get a foothold in the match, his offense batted away by his bigger and stronger opponent. Halfway through Narita found a way in with a neckbreaker drop. He tried to suplex Hikuleo, which was doomed to fail, but neatly transitioned to a Russian Leg Sweep. After that he found a groove, using holds and grappling takedowns to wear down his rival. But it wasn't enough. Hikuleo got back into the match and scored with a giant chokeslam to pick up an important victory.

Although raw physical ability carried him to this victory, Hikuleo has found out the hard way that needs a lot more to reach the higher echelons of NJPW.



B Block - YOSHI-HASHI vs Kazuchika Okada

Okada is 3-0 but I'd say his wins haven't been the most convincing. O-Khan and ELP got far closer to victory than they should have, and Taichi was outright dominating Okada, forcing the Ace to escape with a rollup victory. Part of this may be his new attitude. Ever since the Kiyomiya incident, Okada usually brings a scowl to his matches, cockier than usual, big leaguing everyone he faces, whether it's wrestlers from other companies, wrestlers from NJPW or, in this case, wrestlers from his own stable.

Okada didn't hesitate to start punking out fellow CHAOS veteran YOSHI-HASHI. He dominated the early goings and played with his food, earning jeers from the crowd. It soon became the dramatic back and forth contest we are known for. YOSHI-HASHI put up a spirited performance but Okada won relatively comfortably. YOSHI-HASHI got some nice offense but Okada wasn't in jeopardy as he was against his previous opponents.


A Block - SANADA vs Kaito Kiyomiya

Before the tournament I predicted Tsuji and Kiyomiya to beat SANADA. Tsuji was dispatched in the champ's last match. Surely SANADA must be dropping this match?

NOAH's bright star had a great start, convincingly outwrestling SANADA in the first five minutes. It was all light offense, mainly armbars, but SANADA barely got a look in. Kiyomiya dropkicked SANADA, sending him to the floor, then followed with a spectacular dive over the corner to the floor that got the fans excited. SANADA finally found an opening when he hit a dropkick of his own and followed up with his trademark plancha.

It was all SANADA for the next five minutes, until Kiyomiya fired back with a dropkick to the knee. I saw what Kiyomiya did to Shota in the last round, and he repeated. Repeated dropkicks to the knee, then one from the top rope, then a Figure Four Leglock. Once again I admire Kiyomiya's professionalism. Not only the way he builds matches, but the way he has established his offensive techniques throughout his G1 run. He didn't need this excessive leg work to win the first two rounds, but when his back is against the wall he pulls out this great defensive resource.

SANADA suffered for a while, but unlike Shota, he was able to reach the ropes. At this point the 15 minute mark was announced. I couldn't believe it. Most of the match was wrestled at a slow pace but it still felt like only 10 minutes. Time flies when you're having fun. They build to an exciting climax. SANADA recovered with some offense, Kiyomiya hit a surprise Shining Wizard but was too damaged to make the cover. Kiyomiya hit a couple more big moves but couldn't keep the champion down. SANADA hit his own Shining Wizard but Kiyomiya wriggled out of Deadfall.

With 10 seconds to go, SANADA connected with a second Shining Wizard. He motioned as if to go for Deadfall, but realising there's not enough time, he instead covered Kiyomiya and scored the pinfall with two seconds left on the clock. Incredible finish!

SANADA praised Kiyomiya after the match, saying it was a brave decision to jump in with the sharks. The first NJPW wrestler to say anything positive about Kiyomiya. Company pride and ego is a strong force. Classy move from the champ, who joins Okada at an undefeated 4-0 score.

Cool to see SANADA put over Kaito.  And that Kaito is slowly building a name for himself with the NJPW crowd.  Need to watch that finish, that sounded amazing.

El Phantasmo I assume is not at his A game right now. And I doubt anyone can blame him if he has offnights throughout this. Event is not about him, so if he has forgetful matches, it is not the end of the world anyway.

Yeah Kaito was getting very loud chants in that match. The crowd were hot for both guys but I'd give a small edge to Kiyomiya. It was an interesting dynamic.

C Block - EVIL vs Henare

After EVIL's fateful clash with David Finlay which didn't turn out to be all that fateful, we're back to square one. You guessed it: EVIL cheats, EVIL wins.

I'm going to use this space to share Henare's entrance music. Authentic Maori metal.




D Block - Hirooki Goto vs Alex Coughlin

G1 injuries are a strange thing because I'm never sure how worked they are. Of course if an injury is serious enough, a wrestler is taken out of the G1, like Naito was a couple of years ago after suffering the technical wrath of ZSH in the first round.

Goto got banged up in his previous round match against Shane Haste, yet here he is with heavily taped up ribs. I'll assume the injury is a partial work: he's cleared to compete but suffering. Also I never understood what tape is supposed to do. How does it protect the injury in any way?

The match shows that it doesn't, since Coughlin got the jump start, attacked the ribs with his fists, his suplexes, and a chair. The tape did not offer the protection Goto intended. He should borrow Roman Reigns' old Shield vest. Coughlin won in maybe five minutes with a Jackhammer, a three count that surprised the audience. On the plus side Goto is still in the running for shortest average match time, but we'll see how Yano gets on later on in the evening.


C Block - Shingo Takagi vs Mikey Nicholls

I've been mostly ignoring Mikey Nicholls, but he's received some praise on the internet and he's apparently the biggest guy in his block. Well I don't care about size if you're as bland as a cardboard box, but I'll pay attention this time and see how he stacks up against the bruiser Shingo Takagi.

Very good bruiser match, your typical C Block hossfest. Highlights included a savvy DDT and a top rope superplex both delivered by Nicholls. However echoes of the first round struck Nicholls when he again got busted open from a headbutt. In that match Nicholls got loopy and botched his finish, dropping Henare right on his head. Once more Nicholls got very clearly loopy in the final seconds, leading to an awkward finish where Takagi sort of ran into Nicholls and fell on top of him for the three count. I can't even imagine what was planned.

Does Nicholls get queasy at his own blood? These two occurrences are very strange. He should stop headbutting people.


D Block - Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Toru Yano

Tanahashi and Yano have been unlikely partners in the past two World Tag Leagues, but they seem to have developed a decent friendship. Thus when Tanahashi asked Yano to wrestle seriously, Yano obliged...in part. We certainly did see a more serious Yano for most of the match. His attempts to do Yano things were half-hearted. For example, he tried to tape Tanahashi to the guardrail but telegraphed it, allowing Tanahashi to easily grab the tape and then hand it to a young smiling fan as an unlikely souvenir.

Yano got uncharacteristically more vicious later on, bumping the ref and attempting to use a chair, but Tanahashi punched the chair into Yano's face, hit a Sling Blade and a High Fly Flow for a smooth victory.

I know Tomokun did not work out so well for Yano in his first round match, but the mascot really needs to return. Yano's powers are fading fast - he's winless!


C Block - Tomohiro Ishii vs Eddie Kingston

Eddie is doing a great job of establishing a compelling character in the G1. Ishii is the master of putting people over and enhancing their strengths, which he did in this match, but I don't often see someone take the spotlight from Ishii as Eddie did here. Kingston spent the first half of the match mixing fiery strong style - including a fierce chop battle - and dramatically selling a lower back injury which at times made him impossible.

From this solid foundation they built and built the match. Kingston's crippling lower back issues miraculously disappeared for the second half of the match, which was odd, but apart from that it was glorious strong style. Kingston hit two Backfists in a row, but Ishii kicked out for one of the shock near falls of the tournament. In the end Ishii found a way to hit his vertical drop brainbuster to pick up his first win. Great match.


D Block - Tetsuya Naito vs Shane Haste

Much like his tag partner Nicholls, I've been sleeping on Shane Haste so it's time to open my eyes and see what he's all about. Shane Haste's thing is that he wears an orange top hat to the ring and acts goofy. This led to a fun start of the match where Naito put on Haste's hat before rudely flinging it into the crowd. Naito then got the jump start, but once Haste took control, he had fun playing around with Naito's LIJ cap.

Naito found a route to a big advantage by dropping Haste's neck against the steel crowd rail. Haste's neck took a beating, but he fought back into the match with his insane athleticism. The closing stretch was fun and led to the shock of the tournament. Naito was cruising to a victory, but Haste neatly countered Destino into his own finish and pinned Naito clean in the middle.

Naito said after the match "It's not like I let my guard down. Shane Haste was just that good today."


C Block - David Finlay vs Tama Tonga

An interesting stat on Tama Tonga is that he has a track record of ending unbeaten streaks on the G1. There's his famous win against Okada, where Okada was 8-0 until meeting Tama. He also defeated Jay White, ending his undefeated streak. Not a bad claim to fame. The match has some more personal history behind it. Finlay is 3-0 against Tama Tonga. His last victory was a few months ago, a crushing defeat that established Finlay as a killer and led to Tonga leaving on a stretcher.

This is their first meeting since then and Tama is out for vengeance. Finlay was too busy posturing during his entrance to notice Tama charging right at him and getting the jump start. A violent brawl ensued. Both men fought tooth and nail, but once more the writing was on the wall as Finlay proved to be the tougher and more dominant wrestler. A sequence of powerbombs is what put the nail in Tama's coffin last time. After a string of big offense, Finlay went for the first powerbomb, but Tama countered into a hurricanrana pin for a surprise three count!

The shock and disgust was written all over Finlay's face. He attacked Tama post match, hitting a powerbomb and with the NEVER Openweight belt to a chorus of boos. Finlay's second singles loss of the year, and his first since losing the New Japan Cup final tO SANADA. One of the only upsets I predicted correctly.


D Block - Zack Sabre Jr. vs Jeff Cobb

I complained about Zack's opening matches before, and now he is where he belongs: the main event. The two undefeated gladiators in D Block butt heads. ZSJ vs Cobb have had a great rivalry over the TV Championship; in the G1 they get an extra five minutes to wrestle, and they needed it.

The contest opened with some excellent grappling, both men using technique and creativity. Zack's leverage-based takedowns of a much larger opponent matched equally by Cobb rolling and cartwheeeling out of holds. Cobb soon took over and dealt a lot of damage to Zack's midsection, in particular a pair of extremely hard Irish whips into the turnbuckle.

Cobb is the one wrestler Zack can't dominiate, and indeed it was one way traffic for most of the match, with Zack using his toughness and resourcefulness to stay in the fight. Cobb made an error in trying one of Zack's rollups against him, which nearly backfired, but he got back on track. The match passed the 15 minute mark, which would have been a successful TV title defense, but the extra five minutes made all the difference. Zack managed to hit a German Suplex, but Cobb's offense was too heavy, and soon the TV Champion had no defense to Tour of the Islands.

Cobb remains undefeated and adds to his impressive G1 performance.

A Block - Shota Umino vs Chase Owens

Owens attempts the sneak attack by baseball sliding Shota as he walks around the ring during his entrance, but Shota sees it coming, dodges the slide and the fight is on!

The fight turned out to be pretty dull. Definitely a match to watch on the highlight reel. The final minute was fun, a frantic sequence of rollups, moves and reversals which saw Shota come out on top when he outmaneouvred Chase, countering the package piledriver into Death Rider for his second win in a row. Shota getting himself right back in the mix.


B Block - YOSHI-HASHI vs Taichi

Y-H is such a painful name to type out, I can't believe I've only just thought to abbreviate it. Both men are having a decent run. Taichi beat Ospreay in the first round, then beat Tanga Loa, but lost to Okada and a short match to KENTA. Y-H defeated Tanga Loa, lost to Ospreay, beat ELP, lost to Okada. Both men on 50-50, each win is becoming more and more important.

C Block is dubbed "Murderer's Row" because it's full of those bruiser types that just love to hit each other for as long as it takes for one person to die. Y-H and Taichi decided they wanted some of the same fun. Most of the match was the two wrestlers hitting each other. Mostly chops. Both guys back a mean chop, but Taichi has more versatility, especially in his kicks. It's these kicks that allowed him to frequently turn the match in his favour. And just like his victory against Ospreay, it ended with a superkick out of nowhere followed by Black Mephiste. Nice bounce back from two tough defeats.


A Block - Gabe Kidd vs Kaito Kiyomiya

The order of entrances is loosely decided by stature, longevity etc, so Gabriel Kidd should be coming out first every match. Except he isn't. He comes out second so he can jump his opponents during their entrance. If he comes out second even against SANADA, who should always come out last being the IWGP champion, something is really wrong. I imagine Gabe in the back raising his middle fingers and yelling "fuck you!" at the production crew until they play his music.

Thus, Kiyomiya comes out first, and he isn't even in the entrance way before he's getting mugged by the War Dog. They brawl into the crowd, but Kiyomiya manages to take the advantage after dodging a charging Gabe who goes flying into a legion of empty chairs. These dramatic "clear the fans out and cause mayhem on the cheap plastic chairs" has been a growing trend ever since Clark Connors introduces it in BOSJ earlier this year. It's natural for Gabe to embrace it.

The wrestlers head to ringside and Gabe turns the tables, cracking Kiyomiya over the head with a folding chair. Gabe is in full control from here. He even yanks Kiyomiya's head up during a pinfall, although I'm not convinced Kaito would have stayed down for the full count. Gabe follows this up by perching Kiyomiya on the ropes (not the turnbuckle) and shoving him, sending him crashing neck first on the apron and to the floor. Take out the trash. That's a great heel spot.

Kaito slides into the ring at the count of 18 and suddenly explodes with a leaping clothesline. The opening he needs! Kaito gets some fiery offense but he's cut off once more when Gabe distracts the referee and hits a low blow. The disrespectful beating from Gabe continues. He spits in Kaito's face, and that's it. Kaito explodes, spitting back in Gabe's face, going all out, much like the infamous brawl with Okada. It's exciting at hell. They brawl to the floor and can't stop. The referee is very lenient but is forced to count both men out. Draw by double countout. They keep fighting after the bell.

Until this match Kaito was always in control - he got to wrestle his style and wrestle it well, even in defeat to SANADA. Gabe took Kaito completely out of his comfort zone, threw him off his game, and cost him a precious G1 point. I appreciate the dyanmic Gabe is bringing to the tournament. He's playing the Yano role where he can believably take points from anyone without necessarily outwrestling them.


B Block - Tanga Loa vs Great O-Khan

The two tail enders of B Block clash. The loser is eliminated from making the quarter finals. The winner will have a remote chance.

O-Khan showed a more violent side in his previous match against Will Ospreay, and this side emerged once more. O-Khan took control early with a beautiful transition into a kneebar. O-Khan sent Loa to the floor, grabbed a couple of chairs, and did a lot of damage to Loa's knee. It took a long time for Loa to get back into the match. But he did, leading to a pretty dull closing stretch where Loa's leg injury was forgotten about. It ended when O-Khan charged into Loa, who scooped him on and dropped him with his Island Driver finisher. O-Khan is eliminated, but let's be real, neither guy is going to make the quarter finals.


A Block - Hikuleo vs Yota Tsuji

People have been calling Yota Tsuji a monster, which Hikuleo of course takes exception to. Hikuleo stands almost a full foot taller than everyone in his group, including Tsuji. But he hasn't shown his monstrous side so much, not until his victory against Ren Narita two nights before.

Tsuji is a pretty big guy but his main strength is his versatility. His lucha libre game is strong, as demonstrated when he hit a hurricanrana on the outside to send Hikuleo neck first into the crowd rail. This allowed Tsuji to dominate the bigger man, keeping him grounded with intelligent combinations of strikes. Tsuji's repertoire has no limitations - his moveset is everything. I saw him bust out moves that I've not seen him use before. V-Triggers, thrust kicks, Falcon Arrows.

Tsuji's problem is that he's a jack of all trades and a master of none. For all the offense he hit, Hikuleo was never in any real danger of defeat. The only way Tsuji can finish a match is with the Spear, which is not only an incredibly ordinary finish for a man so versatile, but a finish that's simple to evade. Hikuleo smartly sidestepped and kicked the charging Tsuji in the face, then followed wiht a snap powerslam and a gigantic chokeslam - Hikuleo wins.


B Block - El Phantasmo vs KENTA

ELP is naturally nice and goofy and silly, he doesn't have a natural aggressive side, and he's bad at faking it. It worked well enough as a heel junior in Bullet Club, but not great when trying to establish himself as a babyface heavyweight in NJPW. Just look at the match graphic. Between that and his WOAT entrance music, he's lost me before the bell rings.



For all my criticism, what he hasn't lost is the fans, who are behind him more than ever as evidenced by the loud ELP chants after his entrance.

We're getting full on Bullet Club KENTA, he stalls on the floor and avoids all contact with ELP. A good strategy considering ELP is hunting for Bullet Club blood. KENTA stands near the crowd, taunting, seemingly out of reach, when the camera pans to ELP standing on the turnbuckle post, and down he goes, soaring on top of KENTA. Fantastic way to start the match.

They brawl wildly in the crowd for around 10 minutes. Normally I'm not into crowd brawling but this brawl was structured well, with the kind of dramatic twists and turns you often see in the ring. Despite my criticism, I found myself rooting strongly for ELP. ELP had the upper hand for a long time, but KENTA caught him with a DDT on the bleachers, busting him open. Later on he whipped ELP with a kendo stick. ELP turned the table and got some revenge with the same weapon. Back and forth they went. ELP hit Sudden Death at ringside. ELP then tried to put KENTA through the announce table, but KENTA fought free and DDTs ELP through the same table.

His work done, KENTA rolled ELP into the ring and the ref rang the bell to start the match. This shocked me because I thought the match had started before they were brawling. The commentators correctly criticised this decision. KENTA went for GTS, but ELP caught the knee, small packaged KENTA and the ref counted to three!!

Exciting match and I have to take my hat off to ELP for refuting everything I said in the preamble. ELP fought like a lion, the crowd were behind him, and so was I. That was the match ELP needed to establish himself. Credit to both guys .


A Block - Ren Narita vs SANADA

I didn't feel this match. There were a surprising amount of mini-botches, there was no real story being told. The last few minutes had some nice sequences, and Narita got quite a lot of offense, but SANADA found a way to counter the belly-to-belly into Deadfall to go 5-0 and guarantee a place in the quarter finals.


B Block - Will Ospreay vs Kazuchika Okada

Here we are. The most anticipated of all the block matches. Ospreay said something interesting in the leadup. He said that deep down he knew he could beat Okada, but he wasn't sure if he could do it in 20 minutes. The last time Okada lost in under 20 minutes was when Jay White won in just over 15 minutes at Wrestle Kingdom 13 (2019).

Cut to the ring. Ospreay is poised as if he's ready to charge. The bell rings. Ospreay does not charge. Instead they start grappling. I understand not wanting to risk being over aggressive and making a mistake, but this is exactly the moment to do it. Ospreay manages to turn Okada's rope break taunt around to get the early offensive, but his overenthusiasm leads him to go for a risky dive that Okada saw coming. Okada steps aside and DDTs Ospreay twice on the floor. That's been his go-to move the whole tournament.

If Okada has a weakness, it's his predictability. Ospreay exploited this in the opening, and to get back into the match he neatly evades Okada's running elbow strike and connects with a corkscrew kick. The nice thing about the 20 minute time limit is that the wrestlers cut the dead weight from their matches. We're just past the 5 minute mark and they're battling like they would be 15+ minutes into a typical main event. Okada starts focusing on the Money Clip, his submission hold that hasn't won him a singles match since 2021 or so, but he insists on using it, and a discus clothesline in between Money Clips starts to make me feel Ospreay is in some trouble. However Ospreay makes the ropes and he's almost immediately back in the fight, showing that the Money Clip isn't all that great.

However Ospreay needs something big to do the job, and he finds that something. Ospreay perches Okada on the top rope. A scuffle sees Ospreay knocked to the apron, from where he hooks Okada's head in a cutter position and drops him face first on the apron. Nasty move. Okada barely gets in the ring before the count of 20, but Ospreay is waiting with a springboard dropkick.

The finishing stretch is a little off, with a couple of sloppy spots and lacking the top tier drama we come to expect from Okada matches. It all ends when Ospreay hits a Hidden Blade from a Rainmaker setup. I like the idea but it was not executed well. However it's the thought that counts, and the thought of a Rainmaker Hidden Blade made Okada defenseless against the Stormbreaker. One! Two! Three! Ospreay wins in 17:21.

Ospreay laid into the "new three musketeers" in his post-match promo and his backstage comments. Ospreay says he doesn't like SANADA, Narita, Shota and Tsuji being heralded as the new era when Ospreay is right there, but why is he wasting so much of your words and energy on four guys in A Block?

Holy shit, Willy did it!!!

Another match I need to hunt down. And I agree one of the best parts about G1 is these matches are all on a time limit, so no 20 to 30 minutes of buildup in a match. You got to do your shit fast.

Phantasmo is such a natural babyface it is hard not to get behind him.

C Block - David Finlay vs Henare

Although David Finlay is the leader of a new Bullet Club, he is getting outshined by Gabe Kidd and Alex Coughlin. They call themselves savages, but Finlay's style is much more measured than that of the War Dogs. He has years of experience behind him. He's not reckless, and he gets results, through a style of wrestling that's not particularly exciting. It's hard to pin down Finlay's style. He's just a plain wrestler. He's not particularly technical or strong style. He's a tough guy, and his toughness is shown through his lack of long-term selling. Whenever Finlay takes control of a match, he's never hurt, like the flurry of offense he just received did nothing. He's never fatigued, never really hurt. It's sort of a shallow way to present toughness.

That's how Finlay vs Henare went down. Finlay took control early and worked over Henare's neck. Henare had a very fiery comeback with lots of hot offense. Finlay bumped hard, but once he got on the offensive it's as though nothing happened. Finlay won by countering Henare's finish into the backslide-Into Oblivion combination that's becoming his regular finishing combination. Finlay's on 10 points which should be enough for him to make the next stage.


D Block - Jeff Cobb vs Toru Yano

The undefeated Jeff Cobb means the winless Toru Yano. This is prime time opportunity for Gedo troll booking, having Yano beat Cobb. Or he may do the Gedo double bluff where the "expected" outcome happens - Cobb wins. I don't know anymore. In this system where two people advance from four blocks, it's not necessary for the favourites in each block to take losses to eliminate them from the next stage. I expect SANADA to go undefeated, and Cobb may do as well.

Yano hasn't brought out his mascot but he is packing a large object concealed underneath his shirt. Of course Yano knows how obvious this looks and that he will be searched, but he puts on the pantomime "what's wrong"? act to stall for time. Cobb loses patience and attacks Yano, untucking his shirt. Out spills an assortment of objects. Rolls of tape, drinks cans, and what look like packets of sauce. Has Yano been shoplifting?!

Cobb suplexes Yano and takes a swig from one of the cans. I assume it's beer. The match ends in less than a minute. Yano tries all his rollup tricks at an alarming pace. Rollup. Low blow assisted rollup. Using a chair to distract the referee, he sprays something in Cobb's face, then rolls him up once more for the three count!


C Block - Eddie Kingston vs Mikey Nicholls

Nicholls opens the match by slapping Eddie hard, provoking the Mad King to go for an early Backfist. Nicholls ducks, hits a backdrop, and he's in control. It didn't take long for both guys to start throwing bombs at each other. Kingston had an impressive final flurry, punctuated by the Backfist for a pretty quick win.


D Block - Tetsuya Naito vs Alex Coughlin

Coming into the G1, Naito was one of the block favourites, but his situation is critical having suffered two defeats to Cobb and Haste. Naito need to win to be in a strong position heading into his next fights against fellow block favourite ZSJ and the last round against Tanahashi.

Naito approached this match in the same way he did against Yano: extremely slow entrance and pre-mach ritual, all designed to irritate his hot-headed opponent. Naito's mind games continues after the bell rang as he calmly strolled around ringside. Coughlin showed patience which is to his credit. From his first round defeat to Nicholls he learned very quickly that over aggressiveness often backfires. However, Naito's tranquilo is far greater than Coughlin's, so it wasn't long before Coughlin was provoked into giving chance, and of course Naito took advantage to gain the early offense.

Coughlin assumed control when he caught a crossbody and launched Naito with a fallaway slam. Coughlin dominated. He chopped Naito twice in the corner. He asked the crowd "one more?" to which they answered in the affirmative. Coughlin raised his arm for the chop, then put on the brakes and spit in Naito's face. Nice.

Naito got back into the fight, where it became a battle of Coughlin's raw power against Naito's quickness and resourcefulness. Not to be outdone, Naito incorporated a spit into his Combinación Cabrón. Coughlin put up a spirited fight, but the weakness of these young wrestlers full of energy is their resilience. Naito's first big move was countering the Jackhammer into a Destino. Coughlin kicked out, but he was defenseless against Naito slowly but surely executing the full Destino. The more seasoned wrestler would have countered that for sure.

Naito took a beating but he got an important victory.


C Block - Tomohiro Ishii vs EVIL

You've read my posts long enough. You know how this goes. Say it with me...

EVIL CHEATS, EVIL WINS.

I'll elaborate. EVIL cheated a lot. There were three instances of the ref being bumped and Dick Togo joining the fray. Ishii survived/defended on two occasions, but the last straw came with the familiar ref distraction/low blow/EVIL combination for the win. EVIL is his stupidly named finisher, if that wasn't clear.

The tired House of Torture act works best when they lose more often than they win. Sho got it right in the BOSJ. He had EVIL by his side in every match as his personal cheating assistant. There was a lot of cheating. But it was more goofball cheating than serious cheating, and Sho was thwarted on almost every occasions. That's how EVIL should be booked. EVIL winning the G1 is not going to happen. So why is he booked to beat so many fan favourites in the same way? It's just deflating.

It all boils down to the dumb decision to book EVIL to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship during the pandemic. My guess is that Gedo doesn't want to kill the credibility of a former champion by having him lose most of his matches. So he has to keep winning at the expense of the product. A necessary EVIL.


D Block - Zack Sabre Jr. vs Shane Haste

The good old inter-faction G1 battle. Two members of TMDK in the same block. Shane Haste just defeated Naito, so he's capable of beating Zack, right? Nah. In fact, Haste beating Naito makes it improbable he will beat Zack. You won't have a lower carder going over two of the top guys. Just like Taichi beating Ospreay meant there was no way he was beating Okada. Zack is the frontman of TMDK, the leader figure, so he has to win for that reason too.

The match was surprisingly strike heavy. They chain wrestled for the first couple of minutes, then Haste soccer kicked Zack's back. He apologised, saying it was instinct, then booted Zack in the face and the fight was on. Lots of uppercuts and kicks were thrown, and there was an interesting palm strike exchange where ZSJ was clearly on top. Haning around Minoru Suzuki for half a decade teaches you a few things.

ZSJ only applied one dangerous submission hold the whole match. Haste made the ropes then fired back with a barrage of heavy moves. He went for his finish but ZSJ manouevred into a Triangle Choke position. Zack could not secure a hold, but he was able to use Haste's wriggling against him, transitioning nicely into a European Clutch for a pinfall victory.

I'll use this space to shout out Fujita. He is the young lion that Zack personally recruited, and has had fun cosplaying as Zack for a few of his matches, including Zack vs Yano from earlier in the G1. Fujita has been on duty seconding all three TMDK members who all wrestle on the same day. Moxley started the young boy adoption with Shota, but Zack and TMDK have taken it to another level. They are training him, treating him as an equal, and he frequently teams with them. Fujita will definitely return this loyalty when he returns from excursion. TMDK for life. Could he be the next ZSJ?


C Block - Shingo Takagi vs Tama Tonga

Not much to say about this contest. A perfectly acceptable *** match, which makes it a below average match for G1 standards. They went the distance, with a dramatic final couple of minutes. With 30 seconds to go Tama countered Last of the Dragons into Gun Stun but needed about 10 seconds to make the cover, giving Shingo enough breathing space to kick out. Neither man could achieve anything in the final seconds and the bell rang. just as Shingo finished executing a desperate jackknife cover. The first draw outside of A Block!


D Block - Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Hirooki Goto

There's only one reason this match is main eventing: to allow the "Ace" Tanahashi can close a show. Tanahashi vs Goto was a big deal 10 years ago, even 15 years ago. Now it's a match between two past-their-prime midcarders. I almost skipped to the end, but something stopped me and made me watch. I'm glad I did.

Goto had been wrestling short matches after suffering a rib injury in his match against Shane Haste. Clearly it was all to keep him as fresh as possible for this big main event. Both men worked as hard as they could, and while they aren't as strong or mobile as they used to be - Tanahashi especially - they know how to tell a story and work around each other's limitations. After all, they have years of experience wrestling each other.

Tanahashi has always wrestled smart, and now that's the only way he can wrestle because he can't really wrestle hard or wrestle long. Goto went for the kill with an early GTR, but Tanahashi escaped by striking the bandaged ribs. However he focused his attack on Goto's leg, a traditional Tanahashi strategy, but he didn't hesitate to attack the ribs to cut short a comeback.

They built up to a dramatic finish. The highlight of the match was Goto going for his Shouten-Kai signature move, Tanahashi countering into Sling Blade and hitting two High Fly Flows. Except they botched the counter, so they had to awkwardly fumble their way into another Sling Blade. Despite this mishap, the crowd were hot for Tanahashi hitting his finish, getting the victory, and standing tall against an old foe. Tanahashi is not the Ace in my book, but his brilliance does come through sometimes.

He's your ace. Accept it!

Damn Eddie doing pretty good for himself in this. Still in the running to break out of blocks. Thought he would do something like 4 to 6 points and just be like entirely mid. Instead he is on the top of a competitive block.  To make the finals he needs to take out Finley though.

And damn, Sanada CRUSH. First man to break out of blocks. Kaito Kiyomiya got a chance to breakout as well, which I am rooting for. Willy and ZSJ also still in the running, as is Okada and Naito.

Finals are looking really interesting with one round remaining.

I've been good at keeping up so far but now it's crunch time I start falling behind.

I have another free weekend ahead so more paragraphs are coming.

Emperor in a match with Okada, he's blowing up and he's ready to go home but then ref tells him it's only like 35 minutes in, that was just the padding. The real match is only just now beginning. Will the tekkers hold out?

A Block - Hikuleo vs Kaito Kiyomiya

Last time Gabe Kidd took Kiyomiya down a path he didn't want to go down, as they brawled wildly on the floor and suffered a double countout. It's back to business for Kiyomiya, who smartly went after the legs of Hikuleo. However Hikuleo has woken up in the second half of the tournament and refused to suffer for long. Although Kiyomiya managed to hit a Tiger Suplex on the giant, Hikuleo kept ahead of the game and scored with his powerslam/chokeslam duo to defeat one of the tournament leaders.

Despite this loss, Kiyomiya is a favourite (along with Shota Umino) to take second place in the block behind SANADA.


B Block - YOSHI-HASHI vs Great O-Khan

O-Khan chose to use a more violent style in his previous two matches, without success, so he went back to a more technical style, the one he used to dominate Okada earlier in the tournament. It worked like a charm as he grounded Y-H and kept on top in the first few minutes.

The closing stretch was pretty exciting, Y-H nearly caught O-Khan on a couple of occasions, but O-Khan found an innovative way to execute his Eliminator finish to score the win.


A Block - Chase Owens vs Ren Narita

No surprises here, your routine Chase Owens shine-heat-comeback formula. However the finishing sequence was really good, lots of neat transitions and teases. Narita won by forcing Owens to submit to the Cobra Twist to get his first win on the board. Narita is out of the running but he can still ruin Kiyomiya's day in the final block match. Meanwhile Owens has SANADA coming up. Owens has said he doesn't really care about winning the G1 since he can get a title shot by beating the champion. Good luck with that.


B Block - ELP vs Taichi

ELP had some fun with Taichi's mic stand prior to the bell. He tried to sing into it but it only works for Taichi. ELP then offered a sincere handshake, saying "Just Six Guys". I can't tell how serious he's being. Taichi accepted the handshake, but not to add ELP to the group, just as a respect thing.

ELP tried to stand up to Taichi in the striking game. His attempts to battle with kicks failed miserably as a single leg kick from Taichi sent ELP collapsing to the mat in agony. The chop battle was more even stevens, but as the match went on ELP found strength in his usual showboating/flying style, but Taichi's AJPW-inspired strong style proved an even match.

They put together some great sequences involving the superkick which both use as a signature move. The Gedo Clutch also played a role, a Taichi special that ELP borrowed to try and pick up the win. ELP must have watched the Okada/Taichi contest since he beat Taichi the same way Okada did: by using the same rollup twice. ELP wins, Taichi showed some respect after the match, another hint dropped that ELP may have a new faction in the near future.


A Block - SANADA vs Gabe Kidd

For the first time in the tournament we get to see Gabe Kidd's entrance. Kidd is unable to ambush his opponent so he instead ambushes the guardrail, violently throwing it aside and stomping through the crowd. 100% commitment to the act. SANADA makes his entrance and foolishly stands on the apron facing away from the ring to acknowledge the crowd. No surprises as to what Kidd does. SANADA gets bumped off the apron and soon eats a steel chair to the top of the head.

SANADA is almost out. I'm not believing Kidd is going to beat the Champ yet but he's certainly in jeopardy. He does a good job of staying in control with his violent brand of offense. He taunts with the company's top prize, SANADA's IWGP World Heavyweight Championship, lifting it like the champion and then crudely tossing it out of the ring. However SANADA fights fire with fire, deliberately taking Kidd to the floor and piledriving him on the concrete. The old SANADA wouldn't have done that.

That landmark spot is wasted as shortly after Kidd sends SANADA into the guardrail and goes back on offense like nothing happened. It becomes more of an even stevens fight with both guys trading some dramatic near falls. Although Kidd got an unfair advantage like he always does, he's showing some strong wrestling ability hanging with the champ. SANADA pulled through, eventually scoring with Shining Wizard and Deadfall to maintain his perfect run.


B Block - Will Ospreay vs Tanga Loa

It's rare that an Ospreay match does not fill me with excitement, but here's one. Tanga Loa is the dud of the tournament.

Since forming the United Empire Ospreay has been a heel, and rarely was he more heelish than his recent victory against Kenny Omega. Since that victory he has turned over a new leaf and now he's basically a pure babyface. Tanga Loa is also babyface and plays some jovial mindgames in the opening minute of their bout. The Will Ospreay from a month ago would have hit him immediately, but this Ospreay plays along for a while before hitting him, since at that point he hardly had a choice.

That interesting start led to a solid fight pitting Tanga Loa's power against Ospreay's agility. Deep into the match they brawled to the floor and they hopped on the bandwagon of using the seating area to do spots. Loa threw Ospreay into a pile of empty seats as the referee started his count. Loa got back to ringside first, but instead of sliding in the ring, he speared Ospreay at the count of 18, guaranteeing a shocking victory by countout.

Ospreay was very gracious in his backstage interview, not angry at all, complimentary of Tanga Loa's tactics and he had some sympathetic words for El Phantasmo. His heart really has changed after he exorcised his personal demon of Kenny Omega.

So, upset of the tournament? Well the nature of the victory means it's not quite as significant as Shane Haste pinning Naito clean, but it's on the same level. This puts Ospreay's chances of advancing in some jeopardy, especially when he's facing a chaser El Phantasmo in the final round, but I'd say him and Okada are still the block favourites.


A Block - Yota Tsuji vs Shota Umino

Both of these guys want to win all their matches, of course, but they want to beat each other (and Ren Narita) more than anyone else in the block. Tsuji leads this three-man mini-tournament since he defeated Narita, while Narita and Umino drew.

One constant in Tsuji's matches is that he is dominant on offense and loses by a flash finish or his Spear getting countered into something nasty. That was all about to change. Umino charged as the bell rang and got the first shot. Tsuji fought back pretty quickly by dipping into his lucha arsenal, but it's clear he was taken off guard and Umino used this to take the offensive lead. The offense was about 70% Shota 30% Yota - it's normally the other way round. The crowd loves both guys but cheered louder for Yota.

At the 15 minute mark things got really heated, Umino bringing out a fiery side in Tsuji that we haven't yet seen. The match really heated up and as the minutes ticked down both guys threw bombs at each other, including a top rope Spanish Fly from Tsuji. However neither guy stayed down and it was heading towards a peaceful result when suddenly Tsuji found a brilliant way to hit his finish. He popped Shota up. Not a popup powerbomb. Just a popup. The purpose was that when Shota landed, he would have no time to counter the Spear heading his way. The Spear connects, Tsuji scores the three with 30 seconds to go. And with that he establishes himself as the dominant of the "Reiwa Three Musketeers", while also hurting Shota's chances to make it to the quarter finals.


B Block - Kazuchika Okada vs KENTA

KENTA may not be able to go like he used to - except when he faces Will Ospreay - but he is an intelligent wrestler. The smartest in the company outside of ZSJ. KENTA knows what he's doing. He knew what he was doing when the bell rang and he rolled to the floor, stalling for as long as possible. It's hard to mind game Okada, but Okada did eventually take the bait and roll to the floor, only for KENTA to roll in the ring and taunt.

Soon the roles were reversed and Okada was in the ring, KENTA out. Okada rolled to the floor, KENTA rolled in the ring. Except...Okada only pretended to roll to the floor. He had KENTA cornered and started the attack. Irish Whip, KENTA hits the ropes and drops back to the outside. Okada immediately gave chase and KENTA got what he patiently waited for. He beats up Okada, using the apparatus on the outside.

KENTA dominates the next five minutes. Not only is he in full control, but he's bypassed Okada's usual early match tricks of his mind games and his DDT on the floor. Okada has to dig really deep to get back into the match. At the 10 minute mark he eventually
scores some offense, but KENTA matches him move for move. But the pendulum slowly swings in Okada's favour. Until KENTA bumps the referee, gets a kendo stick, and starts walloping away. Okada gets pissed and turns the tide with a dropkick. Okada is immune to almost everything, but he's especially immune to bullshit. You beat Okada, you beat him by outwrestling him, not by cheating.

KENTA hit a Rainmaker-Busaiku knee but the GTS evaded him and, eventually, Okada hit the Rainmaker to keep his lead in B Block heading into the final round against...the man who just beat Will Ospreay, Tanga Loa.

Okada: "I don't know what the hell that belt is, but you clearly have a champion's will". Me neither, Okada. me neither.

D Block - Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Alex Coughlin

The match generally sucked but the finish is worth talking about. Tanahashi was cruising to a victory, but Coughlin impressively caught a High Fly Flow cross body, slammed Tanahashi around, hit a lariat to the back of the head, and went for the Jackhammer. Tanahashi tried to counter into a small package, but Coughlin stood firm with his immense power, forced Tanahashi back up, and hit the Jackhammer for a decisive victory against NOT MY ACE.

Even though the match was bad, I like how Tanahashi put over Coughlin's greatest strength...his strength. A victory against Tanahashi doesn't mean much these days, but it does mean a lot for a young wrestler fresh from excursion.


C Block - EVIL vs Mike Nicholls.

Sing along with Emperor.

EVIL CHEATS. EVIL LOSES.

Wait, is that right? EVIL loses? Let me play that back. Yep, EVIL loses.

The match was mostly a handicap match with EVIL and Dick Togo beating on Nicholls with an occasional appearance of a 1-1 wrestling match. TMDK's young lion Fujita made a heroes save at the end, allowing Nicholls to catch EVIL by surprise. He went for ZSJ's own European Clutch rollup, but took about 10 seconds to execute the bloody thing, which actually made EVIL look like more a joke from being pinned by it. It's official: EVIL's achilles heel is not just Zack but his entire group.

EVIL's second defeat, not ideal but he's still in a strong position to advance. Finlay is also on only one defeat but he wrestles later on. There's a chasing pack of Kingston, Takagi and Tonga hoping to profit from EVIL's defeat.


D Block - Shane Haste vs Toru Yano

Fujita is back out playing double duty. After helping Nicholls win he's out again to corner Shane Haste against Toru Yano. Yano still hasn't brought back Tomokun but he is wearing a black cloth bag on his head. He wants to trade hats with Haste!

They exchange headwear. Haste puts on the mysterious black cloth bag. Yano launches Haste's hat into the crowd. Haste turns away, aghast. Yano pulls the black cloth down over Haste's head and rolls him up for a near fall.

I won't describe everything that happens in this match, but Haste wrestles several minutes with a bucket on his head. The end of the match sees the referee with the bucket on his head, allowing Yano to low blow Haste and roll him up for Yano's second win in a row! This late burst could see him through to the quarter finals!


C Block - Tomohiro Ishii vs Henare

You know what you're gonna get with these two. 15 minutes of the most scientific grappling you'll see in all the world. Brilliant holds and escapes. A technical marvel.

Of course not. These two bulls charged at each other and hit each other for 10+ minutes. No surprises but it was fun to watch. What was surprising was how dominant Henare was at the end. He demolished Ishii with big move after big move, and Ishii barely had an answer. It took a lot to put Ishii down, as it always does, but Henare kept dropping bombs until he hit Streets of Rage for a decisive victory.


D Block - Jeff Cobb vs Hirooki Goto

Not the most interesting match. Cobb dominated at first since Goto could do nothing to budge the brick wall, but Goto stayed in the fight and won in surprisingly dominant fashion with a Code Red followed by a GTR.

Cobb's dramatic fall from grace continues. He was 4-0, now he's 4-2. The door opens wide for Naito and Zack to advance to the quarter finals.


C Block - Tama Tonga vs Eddie Kingston

A decent but unmemorable hoss fight that saw Eddie win with the Backfist followed by the Northern Lights Bomb.


D Block - Tetsuya Naito vs Zack Sabre Jr.

Naito and ZSJ have one of the more enduring rivalries in recent times. In fact they have met four times in the G1, with two wins apiece. However momentum is firmly on Naito's side as he won their previous two bouts in 2022, including a very short win in the semifinals of the New Japan Cup.

Naito preys on Zack's biggest weakness, his temper. Zack has kept that under check for a while, but it didn't stop Naito from trying every trick in the book to irritate him. At first it didn't work, with Zack punking out Naito and copying his taunt. Naito stayed tranquilo and returned the favour, eventually provoking Zack to give chase on the floor, and he took advantage with two neckbreakers on the outside.

It didn't last. Once action returned to the ring Zack found his way in by attacking Naito's left arm, something he would return to throughout the contest. However Zack never stayed on top for too long. The mindgames continued with both guys playing chicken with the referee on breaking their holds after the opponent reached the ropes.

It was an exciting seesaw contest with many twists and turns. Zack Driver countered into a modified Destino, then Destino countered into the Zack Driver. A second Zack Driver was also countered, but Naito couldn't finish Zack off. However he did avoid Zack's deadly submission holds. The end came with Naito tried a Tornado DDT. Zack blocked the move but Naito smoothly shifted his weight, rolling Zack up with a tight small package and the one-two-three with under two minutes on the clock. Naito once more thwarts Zack.

This result puts Cobb, Naito and Zack in the lead with eight points. Cobb defeated both Naito and Zack, so if he wins in the final round, he wins the block. It's almost certainly going to be one of these three, with an outside shot for Goto and Tanahashi.



C Block - David Finlay vs Shingo Takagi

As a character, Finlay is at his best. Reddit doesn't like him, but I love the way he carries himself. When he says he's the baddest man in the company, I believe it. More importantly, I believe that Finlay believes it. And his results speak for themselves. Only one blemish, to Tama Tonga, but Finlay was clearly the dominant force. As far as match quality goes, his run as the babyface-with-an-edge Finlay from last year was his best work, including a memorable G1 run where he defeated some big names, including Shingo Takagi.

Finlay may be a savage, but he wrestles clean, perhaps to distance himself from EVIL. Not on this occasion. In the early minutes Finlay used eye rakes, hair pulls, and feigned an injury to take the early advantage. He set up a table on the floor but failed to use it. The match went on and it became clear that this would be Finlay's most difficult challenge. Takagi took the lead and attempted to powerbomb Finlay from the apron into the table, but Finlay wriggled free and powerbombed Shingo through the table!

That would have spelt the end for many, but Takagi is as tough as they come and he somehow fought back into the match. Despite that, Finlay kept on top, and the business seemed to be done when he powerbombed Shingo in the ring. That is the point at which Finlay's opponents have become defenseless. Not Shingo. He escaped Into Oblivion and strongly fought back with his unstoppable lariats. Suddenly the roles reversed - it was Finlay who was defenseless as Takagi hoisted him up and dropped him with Last of the Dragons. Finlay's second loss in the G1, and his first decisive singles loss since losing to SANADA a few months ago.

That puts Finlay, Kingston and EVIL in joint lead with 8 points, followed by Tama and Shingo on 7 points (they drew with each other), making this the most open-ended block.

The standings heading into the final block matches. The final shows are spread over four shows with one block per show. An easier pace than these two block shows.




Final round matches: Yota Tsuji vs Gabe Kidd, Hikuleo vs Shota Umino, Kaito Kiyomiya vs Ren Narita, SANADA vs Chase Owens.




Final round matches: YOSHI-HASHI vs KENTA, Taichi vs Great O-Khan, Kazuchika Okada vs Tanga Loa, Will Ospreay vs El Phantasmo.




Final round matches: Mikey Nicholls vs Tomohiro Ishii, Tama Tonga vs HENARE, Shingo Takagi vs EVIL, Eddie Kingston vs David Finlay.




Final round matches: Toru Yano vs Alex Coughlin, Jeff Cobb vs Shane Haste, Tetsuya Naito vs Hiroshi Tanahashi, Zack Sabre Jr. vs Hirooki Goto.

Family tragedy strikes again. Jeff Cobb revealed that four hours prior to his defeat to Goto, he received a phone call informing him that his uncle died. Him and ELP got hit hard. But they're still fighting, because that's what they do.

Beautiful tables. I know they are probably lifted from NJPW or another site, but we cannot let a TABLE go unnoticed.

A Block Final Round

Yota Tsuji vs Gabe Kidd

In the very last round Yota Tsuji takes the "WTF moment of the G1" away from Toru Yano.

Yota Tsuji makes his entrance. Gabe Kidd attacks him from behind. Predictable. Everyone in the room thinks Tsuji is an idiot. Gabe beats on Tsuji for a while, but we see someone walking down the ramp. Yota Tsuji. Nobody knows what's going on. Gabe hasn't noticed the second Tsuji but he smells a rat, yelling "That's not Tsuji!" yet we get a close up of the first Tsuji, and it looks very much like Yota Tsuji. The only difference is that Tsuji #1 is not as muscular as Tsuji #2.

Tsuji #2 attacks Gabe from behind to get the advantage. Gabe fights back, clearly as confused as the audience are. He attacks both Tsujis then the action goes to the ring. The first "fake Tsuji" is not seen again, while the rest of the fight takes place in the ring, uncharacteristic of a Gabe Kidd match. Now we see that Gabe Kidd is a frenetic and exciting wrestler even when he's not brawling like a madman. The contest ended when Tsuji blasted Kidd with a Spear to end the G1 on a high note.

A really fun opening match. It was later revealed that Tsuji has an identical twin.


Ren Narita vs Kaito Kiyomiya

A Block is the youngster block. Six debutants and the two veterans SANADA and Chase Owens. Kiyomiya is a similar age to his fellow G1 newcomers, yet he's a seasoned campaigner in NOAH, a former GHC Heavyweight Champion and the winner of NOAH's N1, the equivalent of the G1. He started off strong by soundly defeating Yota Tsuji and Chase Owens, then had a hard fought draw with Shota. He lost to SANADA and it's been downhill since then. A wild draw with Gabe Kidd and a loss to Hikuleo puts Kiyomiya in a must-win position.

Narita's had an even hader time than Kiyomiya. He defeated Chase Owens last round, but before that was winless, with three losses and two draws. Narita hopes to end strong with a victory, and eliminating the infidel from advancing.

It's interesting how Kiyomiya has won everyone over. Not only the NJPW audience, but the commentators. Kevin Kelly and Chris Charlton weren't afraid to show their pro-NJPW bias with scathing commentary in the early rounds, but now they are acknowledging how good Kiyomiya is.

Kiyomiya continued wrestling his professional style, picking his spots and attacking the legs of Ren Narita. However Narita had brought some extra fire with him in this match. He had a determination that hasn't been seen except for his first round war with Shota Umino. Thus Narita was never on the defensive for too long, he was always fighting.

The tense struggle concluded in dramatic fashion. Kiyomiya had the better of Narita, his leg work allowing him to deliver big offense, but Narita kicked out of everything Kiyomiya had to offer. Kiyomiya lined Narita up for the Shining Wizard. He charged. Narita exploded up, grabbed Kiyomiya, and tossed him overhead with his finished, the bridging belly-to-belly suplex. One! Two! Three!

Unbelievable! Ren Narita pins Kaito Kiyomiya and eliminated him from the G1!


Chase Owens vs SANADA

Owens did a great job hyping this match, going on and on about how he doesn't need to win the G1 to get a title shot, he only needs to beat the champion. It's a great opportunity, especially since SANADA doesn't really lose anything from this upset, except his undefeated streak. The possibility is real. It became even more real when SANADA entered with tape wrapped all around his upper arm. He injured his bicep against that rascal Gabe Kidd and had emergency surgery. Fortunately the champion is cleared to compete.

The match started out in light-hearted fashion. Owens had been learning how to apply SANADA's Paradise Lock. It took two attempts but he managed it, and his celebration was joyous indeed. Unsurprisingly, SANADA got the last laugh. Although he doesn't use the Paradise Lock anymore, he busted it out in return, using a version in the ropes.

This little exchange was the highlight of the match. Chase became much more aggressive, and got close to beating the champ by using his knee brace as a weapon. However it wasn't to be: in the end SANADA won with a Shining Wizard/Deadfall combination to remain undefeated at an extremely impressive 7-0. Unfortunately the crowd was dead for most of the match: I guess they didn't believe Owens had a chance at winning. There's also the fact that Owens kinda sucks.


Hikuleo vs Shota Umino

With Kiyomiya out of the picture, it's winner take all in the main event. By "all", I mean second place behind SANADA. More importantly, a place in the quarter finals.

Hikuleo started off poorly, both in terms of results and match quality. But he has improved dramatically, beating Narita, Tsuji and Kiyomiya all in a row. His potential is coming through, finding that monster inside him. Shota's run has been wild, fighting tooth and nail against all comers.

The crowd was hot and so were the competitors. Hikuleo was strong, as always, but Shota wrestled very unpredictably. Sometimes he went after the leg, sometimes he went for power moves. He hit a body slam early on which popped the crowd, but couldn't get any lasting offense out of it. Back and forth they went. Shota's strategy became clear: he was trying to exhaust the giant. Keep moving and keep the match long. It appeared to be working, until it didn't. Hikuleo surprised Shota with a snap powerslam, the usual setup for his chokeslam finish. And so it was, Shota went up, then crashed to the mat. Hikuleo pinned Shota, booking himself a ticket to the quarterfinals. Nobody saw that one coming!


A Block Summary



A Block was easily my most anticipated group, with plenty of fresh talent and an exciting wrestler from another company. It certainly delivered. All these hot-headed youngsters made for a cocktail of chaos and carnage.

"War Ready" Gabe Kidd was the centre of most of the chaos and carnage. Gave Kidd gave zero fucks, fully committed to being an absolute savage, living up to his name by starting wars with every opponent and every piece of furniture. Nobody was safe, not even the fans. In his match against SANADA he screamed in the face of an old lady to move out of her seat. One of the G1 highlights, bringing something to the event that's never been seen before. 100% committed to the gimmick. He may have sown the seeds for an interpromotional rivalry with...

Kaito Kiyomiya. I've continuously praised Kiyomiya throughout this tournament, and although his tournament was a disappointment, he shows a wisdom and competence beyond his years. I really enjoyed watching his matches. Silky smooth and almost unflappable, very similar to a certain Kazuchika Okada. I do question the booking: NOAH has their top guy compete in the G1 only for him to finish with a subpar score and taking two losses to relatively inexperienced wrestlers. Everyone expected him to at least make it out of the block stages. The message: NOAH's top guy is only a midcarder in NJPW.

Shota Umino was the other highlight. He's extremely over and brought his dynamic style to every match. His first round draw against Narita, his epic battles against SANADA and Kiyomiya, his wars with Tsuji and Hikuleo. Umino's star shined the brightest of the young guys.

SANADA's results speak for themselves. Going undefeated in the G1 block stages is extremely rare. You could argue that SANADA didn't have any real challenge, since he avoided the top NJPW guys, but you can only play the cards you're dealt. An extremely impressive performance. As for his match quality...eh, I like this SANADA more than the old SANADA who I frequently maligned, but he's still pretty mediocre. Like Kiyomiya, he's competent and professional, but somehow less exciting. The crowd don't seem too interested either.

The big guys Tsuji and Hikuleo. Tsuji was a phenomenon when he debuted against SANADA, throwing out all of this crazy offense, but has the novelty worn off? No, it hasn't. Tsuji has a long way to do but he's still one of the most exciting talents we've seen in a long time. His finish needs some work - that Spear is far too easy to telegraph. He can do so much, why settle for such a common finishing move? Hikuleo is improving quickly, the potential is there and it's starting to be realised. I doubt he'll make it past the quarter finals, but he's already exceeded expectations.

Ren Narita - a disappointment. Out of the young guys he really needs the most work. He wrestles like Shibata but I don't see any of those intangibles that makes Shibata so special. Chase Owens sucked, but he always sucks so I can hardly call that a disappointment. He met expectations.

SANADA going undefeated makes him an absolute beast and the man to beat.

Kiyomiya is not signed to NJPW, which is likely why he did not get the push he should have. But he is very much like Okada and will make it one way or another. Japan does not give him the push he deserves, he can likely come to the states and be huge.