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Tag: G1

  • Tenzan in, Kojima out of 2016 NJPW G1 Climax; updated blocks & matches

    By Joseph Currier for F4WOnline.com

    When the participants in the 26th edition of New Japan Pro Wrestling’s annual G1 Climax were announced last month, it seemed that the tournament might never again feature the man most associated with it.

    Hiroyoshi Tenzan was excluded from the field for only the second time since 1995 — the one constant in the tournament for two decades, only missing it in 2010 because of injury. Holding the record for the most G1 appearances with 20, he has won it three times. Tenzan was still able to reach relative highs against the right opponent or in the right situation, but whether his body could handle the grueling tournament became a question after being forced out of 2013’s edition with a rib injury.

    However, Tenzan was added to the G1 for likely the final time at Sunday’s Kizuna Road show. Tenzan had been trying to find his way into the tournament since participants were announced. And, he finally got his wish when Satoshi Kojima, his longtime friend and partner, gave his spot to Tenzan for one final run under the condition that he wins it.

    Updated tournament blocks:

    – A Block: Togi Makabe, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Tomohiro Ishii, Hirooki Goto, Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga, Seiya Sanada, Naomichi Marufuji, Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi

    – B Block: Katsuyori Shibata, Yuji Nagata, Tomoaki Honma, Michael Elgin, Toru Yano, Tetsuya Naito, Evil, Kenny Omega, Yoshi-Hashi, Katsuhiko Nakajima

    Updated tournament matches with Tenzan:

    • 7/18: Tenzan vs. Tomohiro Ishii
    • 7/23: Tenzan vs. Tama Tonga
    • 7/25: Tenzan vs. Naomichi Marufuji
    • 7/28: Tenzan vs. Togi Makabe
    • 7/31: Tenzan vs. Kazuchika Okada
    • 8/3: Tenzan vs. Bad Luck Fale
    • 8/6: Tenzan vs. Hirooki Goto
    • 8/8: Tenzan vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
    • 8/12: Tenzan vs. Sanada

    Updated G1 Climax schedule, courtesy of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter:

    • 7/18 at the Hokkaido Sports Center in Sapporo, 2 a.m. Eastern with A block matches of Makabe vs. Tonga, Goto vs. Fale, Tenzan vs. Ishii, Okada vs. Marufuji and Tanahashi vs. Sanada.
    • 7/22 at Tokyo Korakuen Hall at 5:30 a.m. Eastern has B block matches of Yoshi­Hashi vs. Omega, Yano vs. Nakajima, Elgin vs. Evil, Nagata vs. Naito and Shibata vs. Honma.
    • 7/23 in Tokyo at the Machida Municipal Gym at 5:30 a.m. Eastern has A block matches of Tenzan vs. Tonga, Marufuji vs. Fale, Ishii vs. Goto, Okada vs. Sanada and Tanahashi vs. Makabe.
    • 7/24 at Tokyo Korakuen Hall at 5:30 a.m. Eastern has B block matches with Yano vs. Omega, Elgin vs. Naito, Nagata vs. Evil, Honma vs. Yoshi­Hashi and Shibata vs. Nakajima.
    • 7/25 in Fukushima at the Big Palette at 5:30 a.m. Eastern has an A block show with Ishii vs. Fale, Tenzan vs. Marufuji, Okada vs. Goto, Makabe vs. Sanada and Tanahashi vs. Tonga.
    • 7/26 in Nagano at the Big Hat at 5:30 a.m Eastern has a B block show with Nakajima vs. Evil, Honma vs. Omega, Nagata vs. Yoshi­Hashi, Yano vs. Naito and Shibata vs. Elgin.
    • 7/28 in Tokorozawa at the Citizens Gym at 5:30 a.m. Eastern has an A block show with Makabe vs. Tenzan, Okada vs. Tonga, Goto vs. Sanada, Ishii vs. Marufuji and Tanahashi vs. Fale.
    • 7/30 in Nagoya at the Aiichi Gym at 5 a.m. Eastern has a B block show with Yoshi­Hashi vs. Evil, Honma vs. Yano, Nagata vs. Nakajima, Elgin vs. Omega and Shibata vs. Naito.
    • 7/31 in Gifu at Industrial Hall at 3 a.m. Eastern has an A block show with Sanada vs. Fale, Ishii vs. Tonga, Tenzan vs. Okada, Makabe vs. Marufuji and Tanahashi vs. Goto.
    • 8/1 in Takamatsu at the City General Gym at 6 a.m. Eastern has a B block show with Omega vs. Evil, Yoshi­Hashi vs. Nakajima, Nagata vs. Elgin, Honma vs. Naito and Shibata vs. Yano.
    • 8/3 in Kagoshima at the Arena at 5:30 a.m Eastern has an A block show with Marufuji vs. Sanada, Goto vs. Tonga, Tenzan vs. Fale, Makabe vs. Okada and Tanahashi vs. Ishii.
    • 8/4 in Fukuoka at the Citizens Gym at 5:30 a.m. Eastern has a B block show with Nagata vs. Yano, Elgin vs. Yoshi­Hashi, Honma vs. Evil, Nakajima vs. Naito and Shibata vs. Omega.
    • 8/6 in Osaka at the Edion Arena at 5 a.m. Eastern has an A block show with Sanada vs. Tonga, Tenzan vs. Goto, Makabe vs. Fale, Okada vs. Ishii and Tanahashi vs. Marufuji.
    • 8/7 in Shizuoka at Act City at 3 a.m. Eastern has a B block show with Elgin vs. Yano, Nagata vs. Omega, Naito vs. Evil, Honma vs. Nakajima and Shibata vs Yoshi­Hashi.
    • 8/8 in Yokohama at the Bunka Gym at 5:30 a.m. Eastern has an A block show with Marufuji vs. Tonga, Okada vs. Fale, Makabe vs. Goto, Ishii vs. Sanada and Tanahashi vs. Tenzan.
    • 8/10 in Yamagata a the City Sports Center at 5:30 a.m. Eastern has a B block show with Yano vs. Evil, Yoshi­Hashi vs. Naito, Nakajima vs. Omega, Honma vs. Elgin and Shibata vs. Nagata.
    • 8/12 at Tokyo Sumo Hall at 5:30 a.m. Eastern has the final A block show with Fale vs. Tonga, Tenzan vs. Sanada, Makabe vs. Ishii, Goto vs. Marufuji and Tanahashi vs. Okada.
    • 8/13 at Tokyo Sumo Hall at 5:30 a.m. Eastern has the final B block show with Yano vs. Yoshi­Hashi, Elgin vs. Nakajima, Nagata vs. Honma, Naito vs. Omega and Shibata vs. Evil.

  • NJPW Kizuna Road results: G1 announcements, Naito and Bushi vs. Okada and Ospreay

    The card for Kizuna Road itself isn’t all that interesting, though we do have a unique match in Will Ospreay and Okada teaming up to take on Naito and Bushi in the main event. The real interest will be during the intermission, in which the participants for the G1 will be announced, and the big matches on the tour will be highlighted as well. Will Tanahashi make the cut? Who gets left out? Will Yujiro still somehow maintain a spot? We’ll find out soon enough!

    David Finlay vs. Ryusuke Taguchi

    About as solid of a match as you’d expect from these two. Taguchi looked good, as did David, who is now sporting a beard. He lost here to the dodon by Taguchi.

    Rocky Romero, Trent Baretta, Tomohiro Ishii and Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Jushin Liger, Tiger Mask, Captain New Japan and Manabu Nakanishi

    Nakanishi has a new shirt that says Monster Morning, because he has a really big breakfast. No, really, he posts his breakfast like every day on Twitter. Captain New Japan demanded for Sakuraba to get in there. Sakuraba wasn’t interested. Eventually he relented but CNJ ran to Liger for protection. A lot of comedy stuff to start out with- Baretta wanted to shake Liger’s hand. Liger, who is probably aware by now the handshake spot almost always leads to the dumb babyface getting jumped, had no interest.

    Baretta went around shaking everyone’s hand (including a member of the audience) until Liger finally relented. This time, however, Liger caught Baretta trying to lay him out and instead took him out. Basic eight man tag with with pretty fun spots. CNJ and Sakuraba did have another confrontation towards the end, with the latter getting the upper hand. Ishii’s the one to get the win, pinning CNJ with the brainbuster.

    Hangman Page, Chase Owens and Yujiro Takahashi vs. Satoshi Kojima, Yoshitatsu and Matt Sydal

    Heels jumped faces before the bell rang. Everyone looked good here, as it was an  action packed six man tag. Page and Sydal worked together and aside from one noticeable botch they worked pretty well with one another. Kojima made the hot tag, took out Yujiro who was interfering, and pinned Owens with the lariat.

    Bullet Club didn’t like that too much, so they jumped the faces after the match and hanged Yoshitatsu. Given he was out for over a year with severe neck injuries I’m pretty sure they could have put someone else in this spot.

    Here we are: G1 time!

    • A Block: Togi Makabe, Satoshi Kojima, Tomohiro Ishii, Hirooki Goto, Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga, Sanada, Naomichi Marufuji, Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi
    • B Block: Katsuyori Shibata, Yuji Nagata, Tomoaki Honma, Michael Elgin, Toru Yano, Tetsuya Naito, Evil, Kenny Omega, Yoshi-Hashi, Katsuhiko Nakajima

    Big matches:

    • 7/18: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Sanada, Okada vs. Marufuji
    • 7/22: Nagata vs. Naito, Shibata vs. Honma
    • 7/23: Tanahashi vs. Makabe, Okada vs. Sanada
    • 7/24: Nakajima vs. Shibata, Honma vs. Yoshi-Hashi
    • 7/25: Makabe vs. Sanada, Okada vs. Goto
    • 7/27: Yano vs. Naito, Shibata vs. Elgin
    • 7/28: Ishii vs. Marufuji, Goto vs. Sanada
    • 7/30: Omega vs. Elgin, Shibata vs. Naito
    • 7/31: Makabe vs. Marufuji, Tanahashi vs. Goto
    • 8/1: Yoshi Hashi vs. Nakajima, Honma vs. Naito
    • 8/3: Tanahashi vs. Ishii, Makabe vs. Okada
    • 8/4: Nakajima vs. Naito, Shibata vs. Omega
    • 8/6: Tanahashi vs. Marufuji, Okada vs. Ishii
    • 8/7: Omega vs. Nagata, Naito vs. Evil
    • 8/8: Ishii vs. Sanada, Tanahashi vs. Kojima
    • 8/10: Honma vs. Elgin, Shibata vs. Nagata
    • 8/12: Goto vs. Marufuji, Tanahashi vs. Okada
    • 8/13: Shibata vs. Evil, Naito vs. Omega

    Additionally, all shows will be airing live on New Japan World.

    Yuji Nagata, Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Tomoaki Honma vs. Juice Robinson, Togi Makabe and Katsuyori Shibata

    Good match, fast paced and solid throughout. Honma and Shibata, who are in the same block and are also facing off soon over the NEVER title, worked against one another for a lot of the match. Tenzan, who is not in the G1 this year, seemed particularly motivated in this match. He got the win with the moonsault, pinning Robinson. I guess that’ll stick it to those in charge.

    Shibata and Honma had to be separated after the match. Tenzan cut a short promo once that was all settled, wondering why he wasn’t in the G1.

    Evil and Sanada vs. Hirooki Goto and Yoshi-Hashi

    Really great match, easily the best of the night in terms of heat. This was all about Yoshi-Hashi and Sanada as they’ve been feuding for the last month.This got a lot of great heat towards the end as Yoshi-Hashi got a submission in on Sanada and nearly tapped him out. They had a really good back and forth exchanged towards the end. Yoshi-Hashi is ready in terms of being a big breakout singles star. They’ve kept him in tags for years and it’s time to go beyond that. Sanada is going to excel here and in the G1. Evil flattened him with a lariat but Yoshi-Hashi kicked out. They did several more great near falls that people were super into. Finally Sanada went for the Skull End once again but Yoshi Hashi slipped to the ground and rolled up Sanada for the flash pin.

    Kazuchika Okada and Will Ospreay vs. Tetsuya Naito and Bushi

    Since Naito didn’t have Milano Collection AT or any announcers to bully, he opted to lay out the camera guy instead. Pretty good main event overall. It couldn’t match the previous bout, but people were still very much into it. This crowed loved Naito and there were huge changes for him throughout the match. Ospreay came in for fun great highspots including a tornillo dive to the outside. He hit a spanish fly on Bushi, then a spinning kick but missed the springboard cutter and ate a Canadian destroyer by Bushi. Okada broke up that fall, but Bushi came back and hit the codebreaker for the win.

    Bushi cuts a promo and asks why he isn’t in the Super J Cup. Naito says yes, those are the two big events of the summer…but until then, tranquilo.

    Good show, and very newsworthy to boot. Definitely check out the co-main as it has some awesome heat and action.

  • New Japan on AXS results: Okada vs. Nakamura; Ishii vs. Michael Elgin

    First show is from August 15, 2015 at Sumo Hall. No intro, I guess Ishii didn’t feel like introducing us.

    Yuji Nagata vs. Hirooki Goto

    This was a good match.Even though Ross and Barnett put over both of their wrestling backgrounds over before the match started ,this was a very stiff back and forth match. Like Jim Ross said, it was nothing fancy- lots of stiff punches, forearms and kicks. Also really interesting to hear Nagata is 47. I know that Nagata is called Mr. Anti-Aging but I’ve never really thought of his actual age. The way he’s moving at 47 should really be commended. He got the win here.

    Satoshi Kojima vs. Karl Anderson

    This was also a very good match. Anderson worked hard and did his usual heel tactics. Kojima looked really strong. Not much more beyond that, just a good back and forth match. Kojima picked up the win with a lariat.

    Tomohiro Ishii was interviewed. It didn’t mean anything to him to hear that this G1 was the longest ever. On Elgin, he likes his moves and any of them can be finishers. Unlike most Americans, he fights with his heart.

    Tomohiro Ishii vs. Michael Elgin

    This was one of my favorite matches from the last year. Elgin showed in this match that he’s one of the best commodities New Japan has picked up in recent years – he’s just tremendous working a stiff style and excelled here against Tomohiro Ishii, who is also one of the best in this style too. They worked themselves into an excellent match with some scary spots, including a death valley driver to the floor by Elgin.

    He followed that up with one of the scariest moves in some time with a running powerbomb right into the steel guard railing on the outside. Insane. Ishii turned him inside out with a lariat but Elgin kicked out, only to taste defeat following a brainbuster. Fantastic match, well worth taking the time to watch. Definitely one of the best matches in the G1 tournament.

    Ishii says he’s become nothing but a boaster and is disappointed in himself. Elgin vows with every last breath, drop of sweat and blood, he and Ishii will go at it again.

    In an interesting note, Ishii mentions he lost consciousness after the first blow of the match, so he doesn’t have much memories of it. He was out of it. He thought although it was a good, he got beat badly. He thought he was doing well in the tournament until he lost to Okada .He says it’s been another disappointing year.

    Okada welcomes us to part two of the August 15, 2015 G1 event in Sumo Hall.

    Yujiro Takahashi vs. Tomoaki Honma

    This was fine. Yujiro’s in the bottom rung of workers in the New Japan roster, but Honma is so over this turned into a good match anyway. Yujiro used a ref bump to low blow and the Miami shine to pin Honma.

    Okada says that the G1 was probably the best condition he could have been in. He doesn’t fight against Nakamura too often, so this was interesting for him. He wasn’t sure if the math would go ahead due to his injury, but it did. When mentioning that one block was AJ vs. Tanahashi and the other one was him vs. Nakamura, he noted that it was the four best wrestlers in New Japan, so it was hard for him to compete against them.

    Kazuchika Okada vs. Shinsuke Nakamura

    The match that these two had in the previous year’s G1 was absolutely awesome. I forget how this one went, though I remember it being awesome as well, so let’s see how this fares with new eyes.

    They started off slow, feeling one another. The match largely went with a back and forth style; well worked, nothing fancy .Once they started to go to the finishers it became great. Nakamura spun into that wonderful armbar, went into the gogoplata position, then sent him chest first to the ground and submitted him. I really liked that finish, but I thought the match they had in the G1 finals in 2014 has a bit more oomph to it. Still, these were two of the best workers in the business having a great match by any standard, so good on them. That makes it Tanahashi vs. Nakamura in the G1 2015 finals.

    Nakamura says there’s only one more match to go, and he’s ready to give it his all.

    Okada says it was frustrating he got submitted instead of pinned. By far, it’s the most frustrating match for him. If Nakamura wins the whole thing, he’s sure to face him again. The usually chatty Gedo this time says he has nothing to say, Nakamura was incredible. Meanwhile, Nakamura says he gave it his all today. One more match…he’s on fire.

    In his reflective interview, Okada says for him, it was one of the most memorable matches of 2015. He remembers it even more than his match in 2014, perhaps because he lost. He also forgot about the armlock. It was his first tap out since returning to America. After taking part in such a big series, he was proud to take on so many matches. On Nakamura leaving, he’s going to miss him. But he’s not worried about New Japan Pro Wrestling. He’s excited for what’s to come. But with that said, he misses him but hopes he does well in America. He wants to fight him again, He’ll make the New Japan ring the best in the meantime.

    Two very good episodes of New Japan on AXS this week. This show still remains as one of the best TV shows in North America, featuring both hot matches and fresh insight into them.