WWE Cruiserweight Classic
July 13th, 2016 | Full Sail University in Winter Park, FL
The highly anticipated debut of WWE's global cruiserweight tournament was finally upon us. Right off the bat, the presentation of the show was top notch. The opening video was like a video game and we also got a cool highlight video with Triple H's voiceover. Daniel Bryan and Mauro Ranallo were on commentary and did a great job for the most part. This felt like a true competition. They broke down height, weight, strengths and weaknesses, while Corey Graves led us to see some really cool video packages and match graphics in the "bracket control room".
Gran Metalik def. Alejando Saez in 4:04
This was a good way to open things. Gran Metalik represented Mexico, while Alejandro Saez was there for Chile. Metalik is notable for his time as Mascara Dorada ove in NJPW. This was a short but fun spotfest and really got the crowd going. I have to commend commentary, for discussing the fact that Saez had to quickly drop 30 pounds to make the cut and how that could be a factor. Metalik got in some really good athletic moves, while Saez had a great apron shooting star press. Metalik won with Chris Sabin's Cradle Shock in a fast paced opener that was fun. I wouldn't mind seeing Saez get another shot down the line. ***
I love the little things they added. Before matches, competitors are told instructions by the referee and are told to shake hands. After the bell, the official holds both guys' arms before raising the one of the winner, similar to what UFC does.
Ho Ho Lun def. Ariya Daivari in 5:04
Since he was representing Iran, Daivari got the generic "evil foreigner" music. Ho Ho Lun represented China. Daivari pulled a 2002 Christopher Daniels and refused to shake hands. Lun is really smal and had to wrestle as the underdog, while Daivari was the bigger, more aggressive heel. For me, neither guy really impressed. Daivari seemed a bit more polished, but Lun feels like he has a higher ceiling. He got to make the babyface rally before winning with a bridging German suplex. Fine match but nowhere near as fun as the opener. **
Cedric Alexander def. Clement Petiot in 5:59
So far, Cedric Alexander was the most popular guy. Mostly due to his name on the indies, but being American probably helped. Clement Petiot was in for France. I loved Petiot's pre-match video as he said he does no flips or moonsaults. I like a cruiserweight that works grounded. Petiot played into the heel role, shaking hands but pulling Alexander close and talking shit. They worked a really solid match with multiple counters. Petiot nearly decapitated Cedric on a lariat but got taken out with the lumbar check. I'd definitely love to see more from Petiot but it was clear that Alexander was the star. I'm really glad he's getting a chance after ROH dropped the ball with him. ***
Kota Ibushi def. Sean Maluta in 9:40
Sean Maluta is from American Samoa and is part of the never-ending Samoan wrestling family. Stop me if you've heard that story before. Kota Ibushi reps Japan and I honestly believe that he's the best Japanese wrestler under the WWE umbrella. Yes, better than Shinsuke Nakamura. Anyway, these two started out slowly and built to something bigger. Ibushi sold a leaping Codebreaker like death. Maluta also nearly killed himself on an insane somersault dive outside. Kudos to him for also coming close on a big superkick. The story was Ibushi though. He showed that, despite being a cruiserweight, he hits very hard. He got in an impressive pele kick and won with a sitout version of the Last Ride powerbomb. Best match of the night. Maluta looked good, Ibushi was what you expected and this now sets up our first second round match as Ibushi will go one on one with Alexander. ***1/4
Overall: 8/10. If I was rating this just on a presentation and coolness factor, this easily gets a perfect score. WWE presents itself as entertainment before wrestling and I understand that. This didn't feel like that. They know who this is catered towards and it was presented as a wrestling competition, which was so refreshing. Outside of the second match, all three were good and moved at a quick pace. They showcased some strong competitors and I cannot wait for more.
Part two of the huge Ultima Lucha season finale!
Gift of the Gods Championship: Sexy Star def. Daga, Killshot, Mariposa, Marty Martinez, Night Claw and Siniestro de la Muerte in 26:08
Unlike last year, this is elimination. Night Claw is the only guy to get an entrance, as he is making his debut. The interpersonal rivals are an early focal point as Sexy Star and Mariposa go at it while Killshot and Martinez fight outside. As you would expect, this had a ton of fast paced action and so much going on. Night Claw eliminated Siniestro at 2:55, which was surprising. Kobra Moon watched her boo Daga from the rafters. Daga got a big match after the break as did Sexy Star and Marty on dives. Marty is pretty agile for his size. Daga and Marty had great back and forth at one point. Night Claw got another elimination, sending Daga home at 10:55. He also climbed atop Dario's office and hit a goddamn moonsault off of it onto everyone else! By the way, I believe Night Claw is the legit brother of Fenix and Pentagon Jr. Killshot took out Mariposa with a DVD on the apron before hitting an impressive cutter on Marty. Night Claw missed a phoenix splash so Killshot eliminated him with a storm cradle driver at 14:33. Sexy and Killshot teamed up against the butterfly siblings. Marty and Mariposa took out Sexy before Mariposa ended Killshot with the vertebreaker at 16:41. Down 2 on 1, Sexy was in trouble. There is a storm here so I lost connection to my Fubo.tv app for a while. I missed Mariposa's elimination but it came back on in time to see Sexy Star make Marty tap out to an armbar and win. Really fun match and a great bookend to the Sexy/Marty angle that began last year. ***3/4
We got some angle advancement where Joey Ryan and Cortez Castro are setting up Mr. Cisco with a wire. He's got to get info on Dario Cueto to clear himself of all charges.
Death Match: Mil Muertes w/ Catrina def. King Cuerno in 13:48
Like any good rivalry like this, these two just came out of the gates fighting. This was just a war exactly how it needed to be. They brought chairs into play and went to battled in the crowd. Hell, they even fought up where the band always plays and beat each other up with instruments. Things moved back to the ring but not for long. They climbed the stairs, where Cuerno put Muertes' head through the window. Mil no sold it and did it back to him. I love how, two seasons in, they still find new, innovative ways to do things around the Temple. Cuerno made the mistake of going after Catrina, leading to a powerbomb through a table. Mil really seemed pissed, so he did a second and then a third! Not done, Muertes leveled Cuerno with a crowbar and then used a sick looking tombstone to win. Muertes was awesome throughout all of season two and this was another good performance. They didn't quite reach the levels of Muertes/Fenix but this was a lot of fun and really well done. ***1/2
Matt Striker spoke about Pentagon Jr. beating Vampiro in Cero Miedo last week. He mentioned that Vampiro has distanced himself from being Pnetagon's master at times. Vamp poured out all of his pills into the garbage and said it was time to go get his student ready for next week before walking off.
Dario Cueto was shown in his office when Mr. Cisco came in. He wanted in on whatever it is that the boss was doing. Dario was suspicious and quickly figured out that he was wearing a wire. Dario took the wire and shouted into it that the cops could come get him if they wanted. Ryan and Castro were shown listening. Dario broke the microphone before saying that the cops are gonna want him for murder and then proceeds to MURDER MR. CISCO WITH A THE BULL STATUS THAT MATANZA KILLED THEIR MOM WITH! I fucking love Dario. He got on the phone afterwards and all we heard was "it's time."
Overall: 8/10. Neither match tonight was MOTY level, though I really enjoyed the entire program. The Gift of the Gods match took up a big chunk of the time, moved along quickly and was a very fun match. The main event was strong and then the Dario angle was great. Add in Vampiro being great as the show closed was also a highlight.
If you do want to check out Lucha Underground, which you absolutely should, and don't get El Rey Network (like me), you can sign up for the streaming service Fubo.TV. It's a great way to support the company and channel while streaming the show online. You can sign up and get Lucha Underground right here with Fubo.tv.
G1 Climax 25 Nights Five and Six
Night Five (Block A)
July 26th, 2015 | Hiroshima, Japan | Attendance: 3,360
Night Six (Block B)
July 28th, 2015 | Oita, Japan | Attendance: 1,580
Things get a bit shaken up heading into this set of shows. Shinsuke Nakamura, a heavy favorite to win the whole thing, injured his elbow and would be forced to forfeit his night six match against Michael Elgin. His status for the rest of the G1 Climax was up in the air.
Block A
Bad Luck Fale (2) vs. Doc Gallows (0)
These two guys also met in the G1 Climax 24 and it was a similar match. Honestly, that’s kind of what you have to expect from Fale and Gallows. You get a plodding brawl because that’s what they’re good at. This was never going to be Tanahashi vs. Ibushi or Nakamura vs. Okada. They fought in the crowd, did the trademark big man spot of trying to out-clothesline the other and not much athleticism. I liked their match from a year before better, though I guess that isn’t saying much. Fale won with a shitty grenade, most likely because Gallows taking the Bad Luck Fall could have had issues.
Winner: Bad Luck Fale (4) in 8:43
This was about what you’d expect from Fale and Gallows. A plodding hoss battle between two big fellas. Though just because it’s what I figured I’d see, doesn’t make it any good. *½
Block B
Yujiro Takahashi (0) vs. Yuji Nagata (2)
Anybody that has seen enough Yujiro Takahashi matches knows that he works best in small doses. Not because he’s much better in that setting but because he’s plain awful when his matches go long. Unfortunately, this one passed the ten minute mark. It felt like it went for about 25. It just dragged as neither guy seemed to bring their best. Like most Takahashi matches, it was just there. I like Nagata but this was about as bad as the previous match. Takahashi got his first win via Miami Shine.
Winner: Yujiro Takahashi (2) in 12:02
Watching lengthy Takahashi matches is the worst. Like getting a root canal bad. He brings it all down. This sucked ass. *½
Block A
Hiroyoshi Tenzan (2) vs. Toru Yano (0)
This was the third G1 Climax meeting between the two in three years. The first two weren’t anything special and I came in expecting more of the same. I came away pleasantly surprised. Yano had some different tricks, including taping Tenzan to the guardrail outside to try and steal a countout victory. After some back and forth, we got a very scary moment. Tenzan connected on a headbutt off the top, instantly busting Yano open. I mean, the blood was everywhere immediately. The true trooper that he is, Yano kept going and won after a low blow and backslide.
Winner: Toru Yano (2) in 6:38
The best match I’ve seen between these two. They didn’t do anything crazy, but it was fun for the most part. It’ll be memorable for the blood and I’ll give it an extra ¼ for Yano being badass. **¾
Block B
Hirooki Goto (2) vs. Tomoaki Honma (0)
The Intercontinental Champion against the guy that never wins but manages to stay super over. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Honma was born for the G1. They worked this match at a great pace and delivered some great hard hitting stuff. Honma relentlessly went for Kokeshi and the crowd bit on it every single time. It’s great because the fans knew Honma won’t win but they believed hard as the match progressed. He countered Shouten Kai into a small package and I actually thought he had it and I knew the result going in. That tells you something about underdog Honma’s ability. Despite the valiant effort, as always, Goto put him down with Shouten Kai. Honma sold the loss like it killed him.
Winner: Hirooki Goto (4) in 12:20
Tomoaki Honma does it again. The guy just clicks in this setting. He and Goto had a really strong, hard hitting battle that worked the crowd into a frenzy. This was just shy of being great and easily the best thing on the two nights up to this point. ***¾
Block A
Katsuyori Shibata (2) vs. Togi Makabe (2)
Two of the toughest, hardest hitting dudes in all of New Japan. They came out of the gates charging and Makabe laid out Shibata with a big lariat. That set the tone for the kind of match it would be. Both guys played to their strengths and waged war for the duration of the match. There were some cool close calls, like Makabe getting a near fall on a powerbomb. They exchanged forearm shots and did the “kick out at one” tough man thing that is a staple of Shibata matches against other badass dudes. It works in these situations because it is just two guys trying to prove who is tougher. Shibata won this won after the sleeper hold/penalty kick combination.
Winner: Katsuyori Shibata (4) in 9:35
If I asked you to tell me what you’d expect from a ten minute Shibata/Makabe match, this would be it. That’s not a bad thing at all. It’s what you want, need and get from them. This was a tidy ten minute battle and another strong outing from Shibata. ***¾
Block B
Karl Anderson (4) vs. Tomohiro Ishii (4)
Two guys that have started this tournament 2-0 collided here. Both guys game out of the blocks firing, looking to have a great match. I have to admit, Anderson, who I usually like, seemed to be coasting through the first two nights. He’s had two solid matches but they weren’t anything special. He picked up the pace here, trying to match Ishii’s intensity. Having to make up for the lost Elgin/Nakamura match, they were given a good chunk of time and did well with it. As Anderson talked smack, Ishii fired up and just took some heavy forearms like they were nothing. Anderson learned that Ishii is like a Samoan. He tried to headbutt him but it went very poorly. Ishii hit a headbutt of his own before scoring with the Brainbuster, remaining unbeaten.
Winner: Tomohiro Ishii (6) in 16:31
Despite the slow start, this really picked up near the end. The final five or so minutes are pretty great. Ishii staying undefeated is certainly interesting. Best Anderson match of this G1 so far. ***½
Block A
AJ Styles (4) vs. Kota Ibushi (2)
Back in April, AJ Styles successfully defended the IWGP Heavyweight Title against Kota Ibushi. This match ranked tenth in my “Top 100 Matches of 2015” list, putting it third among G1 Climax matches. There was so much to like about this. They played off of their previous match, countering each other early and often. Ibushi is a freak athlete and has the high flying skills that Styles used to possess. No longer in that stage of his career, Styles changed his game up and continued to show why he is among the smartest workers in wrestling. He did show that he still has it as he responded to an Ibushi backflip kick with his signature Pele. Styles survived some of Ibushi’s biggest offense. Knowing the damage it does, Ibushi did everything in his power to avoid the Styles Clash, which was the move that he lost to at Invasion Attack. After some incredible back and forth, Ibushi nailed the Phoenix Splash and won. He joined Tanahashi, Okada, Naito (and eventually Nakamura) as the only men to pin Styles in NJPW.
Winner: Kota Ibushi (4) in 19:10
The best match of the tournament up to this point. They played off of and bested their first encounter. Both guys worked very hard and this just had a big fight feel. Both guys are among the best in the world and showed why here. Unfortunately, we never got a rubber match between them. ****½
Block B
Kazuchika Okada (4) vs. Satoshi Kojima (2)
With no Nakamura/Elgin match, we’re already up to the B Block main event. Kojima is only behind Nagata as my favorite of the older generation of NJPW stars. The crowd loved him and were into him from the start. Unfortunately, their enthusiasm died down as the match wore on. They were actually mostly dead for the entire night. Kojima and Okada worked hard to get them invested. It was good at times but never reached great territory. Kojima nearly took off Okada’s head with a lariat before Okada made his big comeback that we’re all used to. They built towards a good finish that saw Kojima try for a lariat, only to get nailed with the Rainmaker.
Winner: Kazuchika Okada (6) in 18:22
This was good, just nowhere near great. The crowd’s lack of energy contributed to that for sure, but neither guy seemed to take it to the next level. Solid performances, though I wish we got more. The big main events so far, outside of night one, have failed to outperform some of the undercard stuff. This was another example. ***¼
Block A
Hiroshi Tanahashi (4) vs. Tetsuya Naito (2)
This match came in at #84 on my “Top 100 Matches of 2015” list. Two years prior, these two men faced off in the finals of the G1 Climax, which proved to be disappointing. This match wasn’t. Naito was fresh into his heel turn and just starting to turn on the persona. I feel like this was the match where he really solidified it. His mannerisms during the match were spot on. They brought a table into play, which was a nice change of pace since we don’t see much of that in the G1 Climax. Tanahashi continued to step his game up in the G1, but the real story was Naito. He really seemed rejuvenated in this role. Naito worked the neck throughout, setting up Destino, which earned him the victory.
Winner: Tetsuya Naito (4) in 24:14
A fitting way to close things out with one of the better main events so far. There are certainly better matches in the tournament from a pure in-ring perspective, but there weren’t many others that solidified a character the way this one did for Naito. He rode that wave all the way to the Heavyweight Title less than a year later. ****
Overall: 7.5/10. After a very sluggish start for both nights, the shows combined to put on a very good series of matches. Block A was the better half again, with a really strong Shibata/Makabe match and two great main events. Ibushi/Styles was the best thing the tournament has delivered so far. The four B Block matches were pretty good. None of them were must see and only one was flat out bad.
| Block A | Points | Block B | Points |
| AJ Styles | 4 | Kazuchika Okada | 6 |
| Bad Luck Fale | 4 | Tomohiro Ishii | 6 |
| Hiroshi Tanahashi | 4 | Karl Anderson | 4 |
| Katsuyori Shibata | 4 | Hirooki Goto | 4 |
| Kota Ibushi | 4 | Michael Elgin | 2 |
| Tetsuya Naito | 4 | Satoshi Kojima | 2 |
| Togi Makabe | 2 | Shinsuke Nakamura | 2 |
| Toru Yano | 2 | Yujiro Takahashi | 2 |
| Hiroyoshi Tenzan | 2 | Yuji Nagata | 2 |
| Doc Gallows | 0 | Tomoaki Honma | 0 |
1) The Revival: The best match of the week was easily the 2 out of 3 falls NXT Tag Team Title main event. The Revival and American Alpha are two of the best tag teams in the world and they have showed why this year. After a really good match at TakeOver: Dallas, they bested it with an awesome one at TakeOver: The End, trading the titles. This week, they finished off their series with a tiebreaking two out of three falls match. The Revival won and remained the champions in what was the second best match of the trilogy. I love how, in a world where everyone is talking about wrestling evolving and getting with the times, two tag teams went out and had excellent matches by going 80's tag style.
2) Broken Matt Hardy: There was absolutely no reason for TNA's Final Deletion to entertain us the way it did. Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy are two guys that are WAY past their primes and two guys that I'm not interested in seeing in high profile matches or returning to the WWE. However, what they did this week was all kinds of awesome. This storyline was so incredibly over the top and TNA did the right thing with it. They realized that for it to work, you had to go all the way. This was one of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen and I was massively entertained by every second. Matt's win wasn't even why I really put him here. His delivery on each line, facial expression and mannerism was spot on. Give me the Final Deletion over food fights and shit like the ROH Global Wars ending every day of the week.
3) Son of Havoc: Ultima Lucha Dos began this week and the first installment focused on Dario Cueto's "4 A Unique Opportunity" Tournament. While the best match of the evening saw Cage and the Mack in a Falls Count Anywhere rematch from the original Ultima Lucha, Son of Havoc was the star of the night. He beat and bloodied Texano in a Boyle Heights Bar Fight to advance to a finals against the Mack. The match with the Mack was short and disappointing but Havoc pulled out the win to win the tournament. It was a defining moment for a guy that lost a ton of singles matches early on before finding his place in Trios matches. Dario's opportunity was a choice between $250,000 or a Lucha Underground Title shot at Ultima Lucha Tres. Havoc picked the latter but then lost the opportunity when he lost to the debuting Dr. Wagner Jr. Still, it was a strong showing for Havoc.
4) American Alpha: I realize that they didn't win back the NXT Tag Team Titles but that's okay in this situation. They main evented NXT TV this week and once again took part in an awesome tag team match against the Revival. They deserve a ton of credit for participating in tag team excellence. These guys are incredibly good and, along with the Revival, are among my picks for the five best tag teams in wrestling (reDRagon is first if you wondered). Give me these 80's style tag matches any and every day of the week.
5) Zack Ryder: Won as part of the Raw main event before beating former World Champion Sheamus on Smackdown.
5) Nearly Every Big Show Turn: It pretty much has to be said. The obligatory Big Show turns too much joke. I won't say that every turn was a bad one because some made sense. I liked his heel turn around the Royal Rumble 2000 because his face title run flopped so hard and while I saw his heel turn against John Cena at Over the Limit 2012 coming a mile away, it led to a good run for him. But, the guy has flopped back and forth so many times that it's comical. Mark Henry and Kane also fit this mold too but nobody is quite at his level.
4) Steve Austin at WrestleMania X-Seven: It sucks that I have to put this here since I love the match itself. I get that there were plans in place to turn Steve Austin heel going into this show. And I get that Austin's desperation for the belt led him to make a deal with the devil. That's fine, but once they heard the pop he got that night they should have called an audible. Austin was insanely over with his hometown crowd and the turn didn't go as well as they hoped. Then, things got worse when Austin became this whiny and cowardly heel. It did not fit the image of the guy we had seen over the years and it all went to shit. 2001 was a time for odd turns as I could also mention turning Chris Jericho heel when he was red hot and Kurt Angle turning heel after being the WWF's saving grace in the Alliance angle.
3) Randy Orton Turns Face: I didn't expect to find a face turn that went wrong when compiling this list but here it goes. 2004 was a year that featured Chris Benoit win the World Heavyweight Title. Triple H, the leader of Evolution, was obsessed with the gold but was never able to wrestle it away from Benoit. At SummerSlam, Triple H's protege in Evolution, Randy Orton, earned a title shot. Orton was able to win the belt that Triple H couldn't and repeat the performance of beating Benoit the following night. Triple H had Evolution turn on Orton in the midst of that celebration. This proved to be a complete mistake though. Orton should have driven a jealous Triple H out as leader of Evolution and taken over. Instead, he was turned face and totally bombed before losing the title to Triple H a month later. He was so bad at being good that he was a heel again within a few months.
2) Monty Brown Aligns Himself with Jeff Jarrett: Oh man, this one really, really felt like a missed opportunity. I had just started getting into TNA during 2005 and Monty Brown was one of the best acts they had going early on. Yes, he was limited in the ring but he had the gift of gab and connected with the fans in a great way. He had come close on several occasions to winning the NWA World Heavyweight Title and seemed destined to be a big star. Instead, he turned on DDP and sided with Jarrett. Somehow he did this because he was tired of being held back from title shots. This made no sense and completely killed Monty Brown's potential in TNA.
1) Rikishi Turns Heel in 2000: This tops my list purely because it's the most ill timed and ill conceived turn that I can recall. For those who don't recall, Rikishi was scorching hot in 2000. He dominated the early portions of the Royal Rumble and had an Intercontinental Title run. He and Too Cool were among the most over acts in the WWE, with Too Cool even scoring their own WWF Tag Team Title run. Then in late 2000, Rikishi randomly revealed that he was the one who ran Stone Cold down the previous year. His reasoning that he did it "FO DA ROCK" was lame and he was clearly a poor choice. The turn did nothing for him as it hard to take a guy serious as a heel when he walks around in a thong. This was a terrible idea, was poorly executed and ended a potentially great angle with a tremendous whimper.
G1 Climax 25 Nights Three and Four
Night Three (Block A)
July 24th, 2015 | Kyoto, Japan | Attendance: 1,700
Night Four (Block B)
July 25th, 2015 | Takamatsu, Japan | Attendance: 2,070
The first two nights of the tournament proved to be a mixed bag. The guys you expected to deliver did and the guys you usually don’t expect much from didn’t, outside of Michael Elgin who was damn good. Hopefully, there is some upswing on this next set, though they aren’t the strongest of cards.
Block A
Doc Gallows (0) vs. Kota Ibushi (0)
Clearly, both guys lost their first matches. Doc Gallows got to be the monster heel thanks to his size advantage. I don’t think he takes enough advantage of that usually but he did well here. At one point he just lifted Ibushi on the apron and dumped him hard outside. Ibushi did a great job selling for Gallows throughout. He busted out a Pele like kick to and moonsault to the outside. He showed off some more of his impressive power with a German that got a near fall. They botched a rana spot but recovered nicely as it led to Ibushi rolling through for the 1-2-3.
Winner: Kota Ibushi (2) in 8:35
Better than I remember it being. Gallows was really solid as the big heel and Ibushi did one of his better sell jobs throughout. They even managed to fix their mistake at the end. ***
Block B
Tomohiro Ishii (2) vs. Yujiro Takahashi (0)
Takahashi’s lady tonight was pretty fantastic, doing a bunch of splits before the bell. He did the expected stuff, like attack Ishii early and use Cody Hall at ringside to his advantage. Again, I get that Takahashi is a heel, but his offense is mostly dull. He works over faces and it always just feels like it lasts forever. It’s also odd to see him in such control against guys like Ishii and Goto, who are much higher on the card than he is. After what seemed like the longest time, Ishii put him down with a Brainbuster.
Winner: Tomohiro Ishii (4) in 12:17
Far too long for something that saw Takahashi in control. He really can be dreadful at times. Ishii’s comeback was fun enough to save this. **¼
Block A
Bad Luck Fale (0) vs. Togi Makabe (2)
I’ll never understand why Fale has a shirt that says Under Boss, but has the Boss backwards. Is he the UNDERSSOB? I liked the idea of this matchup because, while Fale always has the size advantage, Makabe is known as a badass dude that could still take it to him. We got the trademark G1 countout tease after they fought in the crowd for a bit. Once inside, Fale wore down Makabe. Makabe powered up and started laying into Fale. They blocked some of the key offense from each other near the end. Fale scored on a spear and then won via Bad Luck Fall.
Winner: Bad Luck Fale (2) in 8:06
Pretty much what I wanted from these two. Go out and have a back and forth brawl that doesn’t overstay its welcome. That’s exactly what they did. **½
Block B
Michael Elgin (0) vs. Satoshi Kojima (0)
Considering his night one performance and Kojima’s penchant for good, hard hitting matches, I was pretty pumped for this matchup. They came out of the blocks firing and hammering away on each other. The pace of this match was great as everything flowed nicely and it didn’t go on for too long. The G1 is perfect for Elgin because he can stick to the good stuff that he does in the shorter matches, rather than trying to work 30 minute “classics” like he does in ROH too often. He got in his stuff, while Kojima had the crowd firmly in his corner, giving it a good atmosphere. Kojima got free of a few big moves before they fought up top. Kojima fell off, but caught a flying Elgin with a lariat to win.
Winner: Satoshi Kojima (2) in 12:49
A good battle between two tough dudes. Kojima has become my favorite of the older generation of guys in these tournaments and Elgin has been really good in his two outings. I liked the idea of the finish but it did come off looking like they flubbed it a bit. Still, I found this to be very enjoyable. ***½
Block A
AJ Styles (2) vs. Toru Yano (0)
During the excellent G1 Climax 24 a year earlier, Yano’s best match came against AJ Styles. Actually, looking at that tournament and AJ’s first match during this one and I’ve never given a G1 match of his less than three stars. That includes one against Yujiro Takahashi. He’s great at adapting to his opponent’s style and it showed here as we got a really good version of Yano’s typical fun match. There was Yano hitting AJ with a water bottle before running and screaming “BREAK” on the ropes to Styles shouting “BUT HE HIT ME” when the referee took a chair away from him, this was highly entertaining. When Styles took control, Yano went into his bag of tricks but it backfired when Styles suplexed him into the exposed turnbuckle. Styles had a great low blow counter, blocking the shot and hitting a Pele. Yano had the crowd completely fall for one of his key rollups, though it wasn’t to be. Styles rolled through and made him tap to the Calf Killer.
Winner: AJ Styles (4) in 10:13
Once again, AJ Styles adapts to his opponent’s style and makes it work so well. Despite being way higher in the card, the fans totally fall for Yano’s cheap rollups, telling you how well his character works. This was just plain fun. ***½
Block B
Hirooki Goto (2) vs. Karl Anderson (2)
This single camera stuff has been getting to me. The shows with them just don’t feel very important. Anyway, Anderson and Goto had some back and forth early on. Anderson took control with a sweet powerbomb on the apron that nearly got Goto counted out twice. Both guys provided very good counter wrestling. Anderson, being a total heel, stole some of Goto’s trademark offense to draw some heat. Goto rallied back with some of that same offense, highlighted by a sunset flip bomb off of the second rope. Just when it seemed like Goto was about to finish off the big babyface comeback run, he ate the Gun Stun and took the loss.
Winner: Karl Anderson (4) in 11:34
While these are two guys that I normally enjoy, neither has really impressed so far in the tournament. This was good, but far from great. Anderson dominated a surprising amount of the match too. It just never clicked the way I wanted it to. ***
Block A
Katsuyori Shibata (0) vs. Tetsuya Naito (2)
This ranked as #57 in my “Top 100 Matches of 2015”. It was actually the match that really made me become huge fans of both guys and, to this day, they are my two favorite performers in NJPW. Naito came out in his full suit getup, but Shibata wasn’t about to have any of his usual stalling. He attacked quickly and kicked Naito’s ass. Naito had to work the first few minutes with the suit, but he got to take it off after attacking Shibata’s leg, similar to the game plan that AJ Styles had on night one. After some leg work, he tried to go with strikes, which is a clear fight you lose against Shibata. He just hammered away on Naito. Being a cocky dick, Naito thought that slapping Shibata would be a good idea. It wasn’t. Shibata put him in the sleeper hold and finished him off with the Penalty Kick.
Winner: Katsuyori Shibata (2) in 12:11
There are better matches in the tournament (we’ve seen at least two already) but man, I really love this. It is two guys, playing to their strengths and doing what they do best. Great back and forth from both guys, some fine counters and about the right amount of time. They’d rematch it in September, though it wouldn’t be as good. ****
Block B
Shinsuke Nakamura (0) vs. Yuji Nagata (2)
These two aren’t strangers to one another, having met several times in the past, including earlier in the year for Nakamura’s Intercontinental Title. This got off to a slow start, similar to the Karl Anderson match that Nakamura had a few nights earlier. He hasn’t’ seemed very interested in the tournament so far. Both guys kicked out of each other’s finishers, which I’ve come to expect with the Boma Ye unfortunately. It’s like, the opposite of the Bad Luck Fall in terms of being a protected finish. Surprisingly, it wasn’t the Boma Ye or even his armbar that got Nakamura the win, it was a side kick to the face.
Winner: Shinsuke Nakamura (2) in 16:26
While both of his matches have been good, Nakamura seems to kind of sleepwalking through the tournament so far. This was solid though it started slow and never really kicked into the next gear. ***
Block A
Hiroshi Tanahashi (2) vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan (2)
Apparently, Tenzan is from Kyoto, making him the hometown favorite. As the match began, the fans immediately chanted for him. Tenzan got in a fair chunk of offense early on and had the fans in the palm of his hand. Kudos to Tanahashi, who realized that he was getting booed at times and turned up the heel antics just a bit. Not that he cheated or anything, but he got more vicious with his strikes at times and didn’t deliver a clean break at one point. He’s really good at pulling that off. Tenzan picked up several near falls that the crowd bit on but it wasn’t until he locked in the Anaconda Vice that they seemed to truly believe it was over. Nevertheless, Tanahashi won after nailing High Fly Flow.
Winner: Hiroshi Tanahashi (4) in 15:11
I feel like that was better than I remembered the first time around. When I originally watched, I wasn’t really interested in Tenzan and didn’t give this the proper attention. I did this time around and really liked it. Tanahashi subtlety going slightly heel and the pro-Tenzan crowd were really cool. ***½
Block B
Kazuchika Okada (2) vs. Tomoaki Honma (0)
After not main eventing on the first B Block show, the IWGP Champion gets to close out night four against the man with zero career G1 victories. While Okada is the champion, he couldn’t match Honma in terms of popularity here as the fans were behind the underdog from the opening bell. You could imagine this being a bit of a walk in the park for Okada and it was for a while actually. However, Honma blocked a Rainmaker with a headbutt and things got way interesting. Honma had a chance and the fans, as always, bought into everything. Okada had to dig deep to get what he thought was initially going to be easy. Of course, he nailed the Rainmaker eventually and picked up two more points, keeping Honma winless.
Winner: Kazuchika Okada (4) in 17:51
I often criticize Okada for being the kind of guy that has mediocre starts to his matches before waking up and killing it in the final act. Here, the early stuff made sense and they built to something that came off great. The crowd really added to this, bumping up the score a bit. Honma is perfect in his role as they made you believe he could win. ***¾
Overall: 7/10. While the ceiling was higher for the first set of shows, these two felt more consistent to me. There were only two matches that I ranked under three stars, so that’s eight matches that I would consider good to great. Nothing stands out as a match of the year contender, but the shows combine to give an entertaining viewing. This time around, I preferred the A Block card.
| Block A | Points | Block B | Points |
| AJ Styles | 4 | Karl Anderson | 4 |
| Hirosthi Tanahashi | 4 | Kazuchika Okada | 4 |
| Bad Luck Fale | 2 | Tomohiro Ishii | 4 |
| Katsuyori Shibata | 2 | Hirooki Goto | 2 |
| Kota Ibushi | 2 | Satoshi Kojima | 2 |
| Hiroyoshi Tenzan | 2 | Shinsuke Nakamura | 2 |
| Tetsuya Naito | 2 | Yuji Nagata | 2 |
| Togi Makabe | 2 | Michael Elgin | 0 |
| Doc Gallows | 0 | Tomoaki Honma | 0 |
| Toru Yano | 0 | Yujiro Takahashi | 0 |
