Paypress testing

Category: Japan

  • New Japan on AXS TV report 8-28-15: Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Bad Luck Fale

    by Bryan Rose, WrestlingObserver.com

    Today’s show is another look at the Destruction PPV event from last year, which took place on September 21, 2014 from Kobe Hall.

    First match up tonight is Kazuchika Okada & Yoshi-Hashi of CHAOS taking on Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows of Bullet Club. The tag team division in New Japan consists of the Bullet Club and whoever wants to team up against them that month, so that’s where we get this match. It’s not very exciting, or interesting, but New Japan’s focus isn’t really on heavyweight tags so we get this. Yoshi-Hashi is an interesting case because I think by now he’d be good to go on his own as a singles, but is almost always in tags during the year. He’s better than people think he is. Anderson and Gallows are acceptable as a team, I guess, but them being the mainstays in the division isn’t helping it feel all that hot – they’re fine, but nothing beyond that. The match was pretty good. Yoshi-Hashi’s great in when making a comeback as people are totally into him. Yujiro runs in and attacks YH, leaving him open to a Gallows Poll by Gallows and the Magic Killer to retain the tag team titles.

    Okada and Gedo cut a promo after the match, saying that their and Yoshi-Hashi’s goal of winning the titles wasn’t deterred and they’ll be back. Gedo scoffed at their win, saying the Rainmaker will come back and destroy them. Come to think of it, they never have. Most challengers never do. I wonder if anyone actually wants to win the heavyweight tag titles in New Japan at this point.

    Nakamura was interviewed about the match beforehand. He was frustrated with his G1 performance and wanted Fale to bring it on. With Fale, Nakamura seems to feel that he garners strength from the audience to gain an advantage, which interests him.

    The main event aired. People I talk to are divided about Bad Luck Fale and his monster push. It’s easy to see that he’s very much protected in New Japan booking – hardly anyone kicks out of the Bad Luck Fall and it’s not like he’s pinned all that often. He’s the big gajin heel that they want, and for the role he’s…acceptable. As a worker, he’s sluggish. But New Japan’s booking of him is strong enough that he can have pretty good matches despite this. When I first watched this match, I thought it was really good, and a testament to just how great Shinsuke Nakamura was last year as a main event guy. Looking at this match again, I think there were still periods where it was just kind of dull. Action picked up towards the end that made it a fun, but not great main event. Fale has to be with the right guy to be in main events, and Nakamura is definitely one of those guys. He wins the title for the fourth time by countering Fale and hitting him flush in the face with a boma ye.

    After the match Nakamura says he can’t express this win in words, and sure enough gives out a YEAOH. Backstage, he says the championship expresses the winner’s will, and he will do whatever he likes with the title.

    Reflecting back, Nakamura says he was one of the more heaviest guys he’s faces. His power can be a destructive force, and felt that during the match. He knew eventually he was running out of gas and a win was not too far away. As far as future title defenses are concerned he doesn’t seem to care; he sees it as a toy. He likes how many people come to challenge for the belt and that’s where he has fun with it the most.

    Not a terrific episode by any means, but it was solid with a decent main event. For the first time in what seems like weeks, it probably wasn’t the best television show of the week. Then again, you can’t win them all!

  • AJ Styles to challenge for IWGP title at NJPW’s King of Pro Wrestling

    A.J. Styles will officially be challenging for the IWGP heavyweight title against champion Kazuchika Okada in the main event of New Japan’s King of Pro Wrestling show on 10/12 at Sumo Hall in Tokyo.

    King of Pro Wrestling is the company’s biggest event between the G-1 finals and the Tokyo Dome show.

    Styles was expected to get the next title shot after cleanly pinning Okada on 8/16 at Sumo Hall in a six-man tag team match. Okada defeated Styles on July 5 in Osaka at the Dominion PPV to win the title that Styles had won from Hiroshi Tanahashi on 2/11 in Osaka.

  • New Japan on AXS results 8-21-15: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Katsuyori Shibata

    by Bryan Rose, WrestlingObserver.com

    Hiroshi Tanahashi has had some extensive, amazing feuds over the years. We saw a great example of that last weekend when he defeated Shinsuke Nakamura in a sensational match for the G1 Climax 25 trophy. We’ve also seen his many battles against Kazuchika Okada, considered by some to be the best matches this decade has to offer, with more to come from what it looks like. But one never seemed as personal as it was when Katsuyori Shibata came back after being away for ten years. Tonight’s show is the culmination of their feud, one that’s been building up since 2004, when Shibata left New Japan on bad terms. Between Tanahashi’s goal for revenge and Shibata’s utter stiffness, the end result should end up being one hell of a bout, which it in fact did turn out to be.

    Tonight’s show takes place at Kobe World Hall on September 21, 2014. This is part two of our look at the Destruction in Kobe event.

    They first aired a match between Hirooki Goto against Togi Makabe. I liked this match. It was hard hitting, and played into their match from the G1 where Goto broke Makabe’s jaw legit. Unfortunately, this was lost on the announce team as I don’t think that match was shown during G1 highlights, and was never really brought up. To me it felt like that was a big part of the story being told in the match, but who knows. Again, this was good stuff with both guys hitting hard and delivering some cool moves. Makabe at one point double sledged Goto in the face hard. Pretty good, very stiff match, as much as you’d expect between these two.

    Makabe is interviewed after, telling Goto to bring on it and won’t be stopped so easily.

    Tanahashi is interviewed. He didn’t like the way Shibata originally quit in 2004 to go freelance, then eventually MMA. But he was fine with his return in 2012. Fans starting to cheer him and him saying that he was starting to think pro wrestling was fun was the final straw for him. Those turn of events made the match more meaningful to him. He wanted to pin him with a small package to make it personal, having him there for four or even five seconds. The G1 match he was shocked by because people cheered for Shibata more, and that made him upset. When he lost, he felt like for the first time in ten years he couldn’t get back up. He questioned if these last ten years were for naught as Shibata boasted he had accomplished as much as Tanahashi has in the last ten years.

    The match aired. This was given five stars here on this website. As for me, personally, I didn’t think it was at that level at all. I think this was a excellent, stiff, back and forth match. Just not at a five star level, however. Judging it based solely on the match itself, I didn’t think it was at that level. But in terms of telling a story, the story leading to it, the story during the match, and the post-match stuff after the match, it was just excellent. Commentary was great were as well, as they were on point with telling the story about how Shibata had left New Japan and it’s been eating Tanahashi away ever since he came back. Tanahashi manages to score a measure of revenge, hitting Shibata twice with the high fly flow to pin him. Real emotion after the match. Shibata gets to his feet as he and Tanahashi exchange words. Tanahashi puts out his hand and Shibata accepts to a huge pop. Tears stream down Tanahashi’s face as Tanahashi celebrates.

    Tanahashi says that for now, he’s gotten his revenge for the G1 match. He can’t accept how Shibata quit, but he wonders how those ten years were for him, it must have been hard. He gets emotional when talking about what Shibata said after the match, with him saying Shibata told him “Thank you for protecting New Japan Pro Wrestling”. Tanahashi however felt he didn’t have the right to say it. There’s no need for him to say thanks, because it’s all about understanding each other. If he were to say one thing to Shibata, it would be…welcome back.

    In his reflective interview, he felt it was his mission to bring it to the next level. This reminded him back to when they were young lions. He reiterates what Shibata said, which shook him emotionally- you don’t feel like that every day, he mentions. We all protected New Japan Pro Wrestling, it wasn’t just me. As for their relationship now, he doesn’t say much other than Shibata mentioned he always cries after a match no matter what the result. He will stay as he is, at the end of the day and he hopes Shibata stays the same too.

    A fantastic episode of New Japan on AXS. This hour told a great story about the rivalry between Tanahashi and Shibata, and is worth watching alone for the post match interviews from Tanahashi.

  • Nakamura vs. Okada on TV Thursday

    AXS TV will be airing the Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Kazuchika Okada finals of the G-1 Climax tournament from last year’s Seibu Dome show again on Thursday at 7 p.m. Eastern time.

    They will also be replaying the 2013 match of the year with Okada vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi on 8/29, a Saturday, at 1 p.m. Eastern time.

  • Generational battle of past legend vs. future legend announced for November

    At today’s New Japan show at Sumo Hall, challenges were issued back and forth for Genichiro Tenryu vs. Kazuchika Okada, in a battle of one of Japan’s biggest stars of the 80s againts its future king.  The match is likely as Tenryu’s last match at Sumo Hall in November.

  • NJPW G1 Climax 25 Finals (August 16) live results: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Shinsuke Nakamura

    Welcome to WrestlingObserver.com’s live coverage of NJPW G1 Climax 2015.

    We’re looking for your thoughts on tonight’s show, as well as the previous two nights at Sumo Hall, so you can send a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match for each show to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

    Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Shinsuke Nakamura for the G-1 Climax headlies,  Check out our coverage from the last 2 days: NJPW G1 Climax Tournament 8-15 live results: Okada vs. Nakamura; B block winner to be decided and NJPW G1 Climax Tournament 8-14 live results: Styles vs. Tanahashi to determine A Block winner

    Coverage by Dave Meltzer

    The last day of NJPW’s 25th annual G1 Climax airs live on NJPW World at 2:00 a.m. ET from Ryogoku Sumo Hall in Tokyo, Japan:

    It opened with Delirious doing an interview in English.  He put over that ROH has the best wrestling in the U.S. and New Japan has the best wrestling in Japan and together they present the best wrestling in the world.  He announced that in 2016 that ROH would be promoting shows in Japan.  It got a polite response and some “ROH” chants.  It sounded like something similar to Fantastica Mania.

    JUSHIN LIGER & YOHEI KOMATSU & SHO TANAKA VS. RYUSUKE TAGUCHI & MASCARA DORADA & DAVID FINLAY

    Fast paced opener but they were limited on time.  Everything was crisp but Tanaka & Komatsu had a better chance to show their stuff on Sunday’s show.  Taguchi pinned Komatsu after imitating Nakamura and then doing a near bom a ye hip attack combination after Dorada and Finlay took out Liger and Tanaka with dives.

    HIROYOSHI TENZAN & SATOSHI KOJIMA & CAPTAIN NEW JAPAN VS. YUJI NAGATA & MANABU NAKANISHI & JAY WHITE

    Decent match.  Kojima, Nagata and White were all good but it was a quick in and out match with mostly crisp work and guys doing their signature spots.  The finish saw Tenzan & Kojima hit the 3-D on White and Tenzan used the Anaconda vise for the subission.  Fans booed Captain.

    YOSHI-HASHI VS. MICHAEL ELGIN

    Crowd was very into this one.  Elgin was a big hit on all the Tokyo shows.  The match was what you’d expect but the crowd was into it a lot more than a match of this type.  Yoshi-Hashi got some offense in, good near falls, before missing a swanton.  Elgin came back with a spinning chop, a spinning elbow, a power bomb into the buckles and a spinning Elgin bomb.

    TORU YANO & TOMOHIRO ISHII & KAZUSHI SAKURABA VS. BAD LUCK FALE & YUJIRO TAKAHASHI & TAMA TONGA

    Yujiro came out with Peter, a hot female dancer in a catwoman costume.  Not much to this match.  The big thing was Yano giving Yujiro a low blow and and Peter checked it out and gave an “X” sign.  Finish was the double low blow on Yujiro and Fale by Yano, and then Ishii pinned Yujiro afer a brainbuster.  Tonga looked good, the rest were just there.’

    TOMOAKI HONMA & TETSUYA NAITO & TOGI MAKABE VS. HIROOKI GOTO & KATSUYORI SHIBATA & KOTA IBUSHI

    Fun match, ending with Ibushi pinning Honma clean with the Phoenix splash.  Lots of heat for Shibata vs. Naito and everything involving Honma.  Toned down given the talent involved.

    During intermission they announced that Wrestle Kingdom 10 would take place on 1/4 at the Tokyo Dome.  Nobody was exactly surprised.  However, the next thing was a surprise as Genichiro Tenryu came out and started arguing with Gedo.  Gedo brought up Kazuchika Okada’s name and Okada came out.  Okada told Tenryu that he should be happy that he wasn’t around when Tenryu was in his prime.  Seemed to set up Okada vs. Tenryu as the main event for Tenryu’s retirement show in November.

    YOUNG BUCKS VS. BOBBY FISH & KYLE O’REILLY FOR IWGP JR. TAG TITLES

    Fish & O’Reilly regained the title with Chasing the dragon first on Matt on the floor and then on Nick in the ring and Fish pinning him.  A ton of moves and well timed.  Crowd wasn’t that into it early on but they did get the crowd as the match went on.  Cody Hall interfered a lot including at once point carrying O’Reilly to the back and Fish had to work several minutes on his own until O’Reilly came back.  Lots of fast creative spots back and forth.      

    KUSHIDA VS. RICOCHET FOR IWGP JR. TITLE

    Excellent match ending with Kushida using the hoverboard lock, or Kimura, on Ricochet after Ricochet had missed the 630.  Both congrataulated each other after and hugged.  Ricochet seemed to be asking for one more match.  This wasn’t out of his world athletic like Ricochet vs. Ibushi last year.  Not a lot of mind blowing moves, with the highlights being Ricochet doing this incredible running flip over the post dive and Kushida, on the top rope did a flip dive on the post and landed badly on the floor like he’d been power bombed on the floor. 

    KAZUCHIKA OKADA & MICHAEL BENNETT & MATT TAVEN VS. A.J. STYLES & KARL ANDERSON & DOC GALLOWS

    Good fast paced match with a surprise finish as Styles pinned Okada after the Styles clash.  This pretty much locks that Okada vs. Styles will be on a fall PPV for the IWGP title likely in either September or October.  All the stuff with Okada and Styles was excellent, but it was really Anderson and Taven that were in much of the time.  Maria did one spot where she tried to seduce Anderson.  Styles tried to calm him down until Anderson basically told him to look at her and Styles stared dancing and was all mesmerized.  Gallows yelled at both and wanted to punch her but they both stopped him, and then all three turned around into kicks. 

    The first G-1 champion Mr. August, Masahiro Chono came out to help announce the main event.  Keiji Muto, who lost to Chono in the first G-1, also came out.  Muto got a huge reaction and Chono got a good reaction.  They are playing their stuff over the house mic before the match starts.

    HIROSHI TANAHASHI VS. SHINSUKE NAKAMURA FOR THE G-1 FINALS

    All I can say is the main event was unbelievable.  They went more than 32:00 and it ended with them both on the ropes throwing elbows and slaps and then Tanahashi with Nakamura on the middle rope with his back to the ring, hit a crossbody and they crashed to the ground.  Tanahashi then followed with a high fly flow to the back and a regular high fly flow and got the pin.  They shook hands when it was over.  Chono then handed Tanahashi the G-1 flag to wave.  Both kicked out of the others’ finishers and this was basically the pull all stops out match after the great main events each man had the last two nights.  So it looks like another Okada vs. Tanahashi Tokyo Dome main event.

  • Lineup for tonight’s Sumo Hall card and G-1 finals

    This is tonight’s lineup for the G-1 Climax finals at Sumo Hall in Tokyo.  The show begins at 2 a.m. Eastern time and 11 p.m. Pacific time on New Japan World:

    Jushin Liger & Yohei Komatsu & Sho Tanaka vs. Ryusuke Taguchi & Mascara Dorada & David Finlay

    Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima & Captain New Japan vs. Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi & Jay White

    Yoshi-Hashi vs. Michael Elgin

    Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii & Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi & Tama Tonga

    Tomoaki Honma & Tetsuya Naito & Togi Makabe vs. Hirooki Goto & Katsuyori Shibata & Kota Ibushi

    IWGP jr. tag  titles:  Young Bucks vs. Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly

    IWGP jr. title:  Kushida vs. Ricochet

    Kazuchika Okada & Michael Bennett & Matt Taven vs. A.J. Styles & Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows

    Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Shinsuke Nakamura for the G-1 championship

  • NJPW G1 Climax Tournament 8-15 live results: Okada vs. Nakamura; B block winner to be decided

    by Bryan Rose, WrestlingObserver.com

    Welcome to this morning’s coverage of the last G1 Climax show before the finals late tonight/Sunday morning. Hiroshi Tanahashi won the A block, beating AJ Styles in a great main event last night, but tonight there are several variables that will either allow Shinsuke Nakamura, Karl Anderson or Kazuchika Okada to advance.

    Sho Tanaka & Yohei Komatsu vs. Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly

    Didn’t last long, but this was pretty good and heated while it lasted. Typical match where Tanaka and Komatsu would get the occasional offense, but reDragon would cut them off. They laid out Komatsu then pinned Tanaka with the Chasing the Dragon.

    The Young Bucks immediately ran in after the bell rant and laid out their challengers tomorrow with the titles. David Finlay and Jay White ran in, and their match immediately started.

    Young Bucks vs. Jay White & David Finlay

    Also a solid, short match. White and Finaly were on offense for a while and looked pretty good. At one point both Bucks missed Stinger splashes and did Sting’s mannerisms and everything. Matt pinned White after hitting the Indytaker.

    Toru Yano & Kazushi Sakuraba & Yoshi-Hashi & Michael Bennett & Matt Taven vs. A.J. Styles & Doc Gallows & Bad Luck Fale & Tama Tonga & Cody Hall

    Another solid tag match. The Kingdom worked a lot of this match. AJ Styles and Sakuraba were in at one point and AJ had him in the calf killer but Sakuraba transitioned into an armbar before it was broken up. After Toru Yano distracted Tama Tonga, taking him out Benett hit a twist of fate on Hall and Yoshi Hashi hit the swanton bomb for the win.  

    Hiroshi Tanahashi & Togi Makabe & Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Katsuyori Shibata & Kushida vs. Tetsuya Naito & Kota Ibushi & Manabu Nakanishi & Captain New Japan & Ricochet

    Solid match. It was basic, but it was fun and again Ricochet and Kushida were the highlights of the match. They also had Ibushi pair off with Makabe as that seems to be the NEVER title fall program. Naito also antagonized Shibata on the apron early in the match, perhaps a tease of a feud between these two as well. He took him out again towards the end as everyone exchanged offense again. Tanahashi, who was not in the match much at all, took out NCJ with the sling blade then pinned him with the high fly flow.

    Shibata and Naito had a confrontation after the match, with Shibata putting him in a sleeper. Shibata enters the ring and goads Naito on but he bails. Seems like this is a match for tomorrow or for next month. 

    Yujiro Takahashi vs. Tomoaki Honma

    Good match. A lot of the story was based on if Honma could get another win to start a streak. He got in a lot of offense and hit many kokeshis. Good back and forth stuff between the two throughout. Honma kicked out of a fisherman’s suplex at one and tried for a Bernard driver but Yujiro low blowed him and hit the Miami Shine for the win. I thought that was Toru Yano’s thing? 

    Tomohiro Ishii vs. Michael Elgin

    This was a completely insane match and without a doubt one of the best matches of the year. Think of all the insane matches Tomohiro Ishii has had over the last few years and double it and you have this match. Just insane in terms of brutality and stiffness. Some people won’t like this match because of that but this was better than Honma/Ishii from this year and Ishii/Goto from last year. Just some insane spots here and the place went crazy towards the end. Elgin gave Ishii a death valley driver on the apron then gave him a running powerbomb into the guardrail. He followed that up with the deadlift falcon arrow superplex but Ishii mounted a comeback. He blasted him with a lariat and a sliding D but Elgin kicked out. He kept kicking out of everything Ishii gave him, including another lariat. Elgin deadlifted him with a powerbomb but Ishii fought back and gave him a massive headbutt, another lariat (which Elgin kicked out of) then pinned him with a brainbuster. Have I said this match was insane? 

    Hirooki Goto vs Yuji Nagata

    Good match. Started off slow, but told a nice story and became pretty good towards the end. Story of this match was Goto completely dominating Nagata for most of the bout, dishing out offense and working on Nagata’s ribs, which has been a problem for him throughout the tournament. Nagata finally made a comeback by sinking in the white eyes armbar out of nowhere. Goto didn’t tap out and from here it became more of an even contest. They traded forearms but Goto cut him off. Nagata came back with a spinning heel kick and pinned him with the back drop hold. This puts Goto out of the tournament.

    Karl Anderson vs. Satoshi Kojima

    This was fine, but nothing special. Good heat towards the end. Kojima laid him out during the match with a DDT on the apron. Anderson made the comeback and hit a cutter off the top rope. Kojima came back with one of his own. He went for the lariat (Anderson had worked on his arm earlier and sold it before going for it) but Anderson went for the Gun Stun. Kojima blocked it and hit the lariat to pin him and eliminate him from the tournament. From here, whoever wins in the main event advances to the finals. 

    Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Kazuchika Okada for the B block championship

    This was awesome. I think it was close to their finals match from last year, if not a bit better. Just a different feeling for this one from the get go. Okada took over early by giving Nakamura a huge dropkick through the barricade then gave him a draping DDT from the barricade onto the mat. Good, solid back and forth. Okada’s playing the somewhat subtle heel by mocking Nakamura here and there. Nakamura hits the boma ye but misses another and Okada takes it to the outside where he tombstones Nakamura on the floor. Nakamura came back but Okada kicked out of another boma ye and a death valley driver. He charged for another but Okada hit a huge dropkick. Nakamura avoided the rainmaker once but Okada backslided him and hit the rainmaker. He gave him the tombstone but Nakamura avoided the rainmaker and transitioned into the armbar. He shifted to a gogoplata, then flattened him on his back and continued to wrench on the arm until Okada submitted. The last few minutes were incredible with the counters and the heat from the audience.

    So that makes it Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Shinsuke Nakamura for tomorrow’s G1 championship match.

    FINAL STANDINGS

    Block A:

    Hiroshi Tanahashi- 14

    AJ Styles- 12

    Tetsuya Naito- 10

    Bad Luck Fale- 10

    Katsuyori Shibata- 8

    Togi Makabe- 8

    Kota Ibushi- 8

    Toru Yano- 8

    Hiroyoshi Tenzan- 6

    Doc Gallows- 6

    Block B:

    Shinsuke Nakamura- 14

    Kazuchika Okada- 14

    Karl Anderson- 12

    Hirooki Goto- 12

    Tomohiro Ishii- 10

    Michael Elgin- 8

    Yujiro Takahashi- 6

    Satoshi Kojima- 6

    Yuji Nagata- 6

    Tomoaki Honma- 2

  • New Japan on AXS results 8-14-15: Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Kushida for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight title

    by Bryan Rose, WrestlingObserver.com

    Tonight’s show are highlights from Destruction in Kobe, which took place on September 20, 2014 in Kobe World Hall.

    First up on the docket we have Takahasi Iizuka and Minoru Suzuki taking on Kazushi Sakuraba and Toru Yano. These guys feuded for months, and this was not a feud that needed to go beyond one month. However, it was all a setup for Sakuraba to face Minoru Suzuki at WrestleKingdom 9. Not much to talk about here as it was mostly just Sakuraba/Suzuki and Yano/Iizuka brawling and using weapons both inside and outside of the ring. Iizuka hit Yano with a chair but he came back with a low blow while Iizuka was getting the iron fingers and rolled him up in a half nelson cradle for the win. Not very good at all.

    Sakuraba says he wanted to battle more in the ring. Suzuki just gave a look then smirked, not even addressing the camera. He was so awesome in doing that and was better than the entire match.

    Another tag match followed, as Tama Tonga and AJ Styles of Bullet Club teamed up to take on Kota Ibushi & Tetsuya Naito. It seemed like they were grooming Ibushi and Naito as a team, but that was quickly dropped for whatever reason. This was also Kota Ibushi’s return after being absent from the G1 due to a major concussion. He looked great here, and spent a lot of the match working with AJ Styles. Turned out to be a great match due to everyone involved. Tama Tonga is one of those guys who is really good, and can probably thrive well if given the opportunity but really hasn’t thus far in this latest run and that’s kind of disappointing. He was isolated as Kota Ibushi hit the phoenix splash and pinned him.

    Ryusuke Taguchi talks about Kushida and how he verbally attacked him, calling him sleazy. That fired up Ryusuke, and that got him motivated. He started using the ankle lock again because of Kushida’s new hoverboard lock; he figured since he targets the arm, he should target the leg, it just makes sense. Kushida made him the person he is today, and he thanks him for that. He muses that he probably should have given him a end of the year gift.

    Their match aired. I really liked this match, it was one of the better junior heavyweight matches from last year. Taguchi’s gimmick I find completely annoying, and there’s just something about him that lacks the charisma needed to be a top star, but his work here in this match was good. Kushida’s run as champion here was kind of disappointing as he didn’t last long as champion, but his work here was great as well, and together they had a fantastic match. The leg work from Taguchi on Kushida was great and played well into the match, which was a good back and forth encounter between the two. Taguchi trapped him in the ankle lock but Kushida wouldn’t tap. So Taguchi laid him out with the dodon and put the ankle lock again, and that’s what caused him to tap.

    After the match, Kushida begrudgingly showed comradery by shaking hands with Taguchi. But the good times didn’t last as El Desperado, Taichi and Taka Michinoku ran in and put the beatdown on both of them. Alex Shelley tried to run in but he was taken down as well.

    El Desperado does a backstage interview. He and the rest of Suzuki-gun promise that he’ll become the next double crown champion. Taguchi in his interview says that he’s very upset over Suzuki-gun interrupting his victory celebration. But as for Kushida, he says that he brought out something people have never seen before, he brought out everything in him. He kept saying “Oh my and garfunkel”.

    In his reflective interview, Taguchi reiterates about the words that Kushida said about him before the match. He sees himself as a guy who likes to joke around, so thats what he sees as his character now, and he hopes people enjoy that. He says that since he is the 69th IWGP Junior Heavyweight champion, and it took him 6 years and 9 months to win the championship, the numbers might have something to do with his luck. He was able to me himself and establish his style as champion, and feels free to be himself.

    Overall, a pretty good edition of the show this week. Could have done without the opener, but then again it’s building up to a big match at WrestleKingdom, so that’s fine. I’ve noticed a lot more build up towards future events on these shows, so hopefully they will be more episodic now that NJPW has a long term deal with AXS TV.

  • NJPW G1 Climax Tournament 8-14 live results: Styles vs. Tanahashi to determine A Block winner

    by Bryan Rose, WrestlingObserver.com

    Welcome to today’s coverage of the G1 Climax tournament. Only three shows left, all taking place at Sumo Hall in Tokyo, Japan. Tonight’s show will determine the A block winner between AJ Styles and Hiroshi Tanahashi. Tomorrow we’ll find out the winner of the B Block, and on Sunday morning we’ll see the finals. Very interesting next few days.

    Satoshi Kojima & Tomoaki Honma & Mascara Dorada vs. Karl Anderson & Yujiro Takahashi & Tama Tonga

    Pretty good six man, though nothing exceedingly memorable about it. The usual tropes are here including Dorada doing a great dive out to the floor on Tama Tonga. They’re isolated but Tonga cuts him off and pins him with the waistlock DDT. Kojima and Anderson had words after the match while Yujiro jumped and laid out Honma after the bell rang, since these four are scheduled to have their last matches together tomorrow.

    Michael Elgin & Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly vs. Young Bucks & Cody Hall

    Good match. This felt like a breath of fresh air with reDragon and Young Bucks involved. The highlight again was Elgin, who was super over and did all of the stuff that’s gotten him over on the tour. At one point he even did a crazy tope con hilo to the outside wiping out the Bullet Club. Everyone looked good here, including Hall who continues to improve. He and Elgin were the ones trading offense towards the end. Elgin impressively deadlifted him with a powerbomb then pinned him with his sitout powerbomb.

    Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi & Kushida vs. Hirooki Goto & Ricochet & Captain New Japan

    Another good tag team match. Ricochet mostly worked with Kushida and they had some really great back and forth. Ricochet is a guy who excels in everything he does in terms of presentation, in ring ability and precision, it’s amazing. Nakanishi wasn’t in there long. It was left between Captain New Japan and Nagata. Goto broke up a pin at one point, but Nakanishi ran in and gave him the torture rack while Kushida took out Ricochet on the outside with a tope con hilo. Nagata then submitted CNJ with the white eyes armbar.

    Shinsuke Nakamura & Tomohiro Ishii & Kazushi Sakuraba & Yoshi-Hashi vs. Kazuchika Okada & Gedo & Michael Bennett & Matt Taven

    Interesting dynamic here as it’s CHAOS against CHAOS. Turned out to be another good tag team match. Much of the story was between Okada and Nakamura, who headline tomorrow’s show. They went at it briefly and had some good exchanges. Maria distracted Sakuraba which let Yoshi-Hashi superkick him as Gedo tried to put him in the Gedo clutch, but Sakuraba transitioned into the kimura and submitted him. Okada and Nakamura had a staredown after the match.

    Doc Gallows vs. Katsuyori Shibata

    I liked this match. It was solid for the most part with Gallows taking out Shibata at one point with a chokeslam on the apron. He hit the Gallows Poll but Shibata kicked out and applied the sleeper. Gallows cut him off and hit a bicycle kick, a superkick then pinned him with the Gallows Poll. Weird they went with this decision. 

    Toru Yano vs. Bad Luck Fale

    Eh, this wasn’t very good, though the ending was funny. Yano jumped him before the bell him, squirted him with the water bottle and attacked him with his DVD. Fale made his comeback and spent much of the match working him over. They were on the outside when Fale teased giving him the Bad Luck Fall into the crowd. Yano jumped back down, low blowed him and Tama Tonga and made it to the ring right before 20 so Fale was counted out. 

     Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Tetsuya Naito

    This was interesting. The storyline here is that Naito was completely unimpressed with Tenzan leading to and during the match. So Tenzan is on offense for a lot of the match and Naito seems rather unimpressed despite being on defense, smirking and spitting at Tenzan whenever he had a chance. Naito made a comeback but Tenzan cut him off with a huge headbutt and locked in the anaconda vise, with Naito eventually tapping out. Great match in terms of storytelling, and the action was good as well.

    Kota Ibushi vs. Togi Makabe 

    I thought this was a good match, but nothing that really stood out. Both guys looked good and did their usual stuff, and given the two’s talents they had a good match out of that. It didn’t feel like anything special in the end. Ibushi pinned Makabe after Makabe went for the spider German suplex but Ibushi landed on his feet, kicked him in the back of the head and hit the phoenix splash for the win. Looks like this is the next NEVER title program.

    Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. AJ Styles for the A Block Championship 

    Excellent match. This started out slow, and was just good at the start, but amped up toward the end and became pretty great. A lot of the match was good back and forth between the two, with Tanahashi doing his high fly flow to the floor and AJ doing his springboard reverse DDT. There was a ref bump along the way that allowed AJ to low blow Tanahashi, but Tanahashi came back and low blowed him. AJ put the calf killer on him and people freaked out as Tanahashi sold it for a good while until finally making it to the ropes. Tanahashi made a comeback and tried for the Styles Clash but AJ blocked it. Tanahashi came back and nailed him with it but AJ kicked out. AJ got his knees up when Tanahashi hit a high fly flow and hit one of his own and a Bloody Sunday DDT but when he went for the Styles Clash dragon screwed his leg twice then hit the high fly flow twice for the win.

    Block A:

    Hiroshi Tanahashi- 14

    AJ Styles- 12

    Tetsuya Naito- 10

    Bad Luck Fale- 10

    Katsuyori Shibata- 8

    Togi Makabe- 8

    Kota Ibushi- 8

    Toru Yano- 8

    Hiroyoshi Tenzan- 6

    Doc Gallows- 6

    Block B:

    Kazuchika Okada- 14

    Karl Anderson- 12

    Hirooki Goto- 12

    Shinsuke Nakamura- 12

    Tomohiro Ishii- 8

    Michael Elgin- 8

    Yujiro Takahashi- 4

    Satoshi Kojima- 4

    Yuji Nagata- 4

    Tomoaki Honma- 2