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G1 Day 15, Yokohama Cultural Gymnasium in Kanagawa, August 8:
Katsuhiko Nakajima defeated David Finlay. Nakajima kicked the holy hell out of Finlay here. It was pretty one sided with Nakajima being put over strong. He won with a Brainbuster.
Yujiro Takahashi & Kenny Omega defeated Captain New Japan & Satoshi Kojima. Yujiro pinned Captain after the low DDT again. Nothing other than that worth talking about. Kenny Omega seems to be having a great laugh teaming with Yujiro.
BUSHI, EVIL & Tetsuya Naito defeated Gedo, Toru Yano & YOSHI-HASHI. This was a pretty fun tag match. YOSHI and his injured shoulder were targeted. Yano & EVIL went back and forth. The finish saw Gedo kick out of a Codebreaker before falling to one from the second rope. Naito taunted YOSHI after the match. They face on Day 16.
KUSHIDA, Katsuyori Shibata, Michael Elgin, Juice Robinson & Ryusuke Taguchi defeated Tiger Mask IV, Manabu Nakanishi, Tomoaki Honma, Jushin Thunder Liger & Yuji Nagata. This was good for what it was. There was plenty of action. Elgin went after Honma and hit with him lots of heavy strikes. Shibata & Nagata picked up where they left off from their feud by suplexing each other. The juniors did their usual thing. KUSHIDA made Tiger submit to the Hoverboard Lock.
Block A:
Naomichi Marufuji defeated Tama Tonga. This was a fine match, but there were so moment of miscommunication that ruined the flow of it. There was a great sequence of misdirection rope running. There was a badly botched neckbreaker where Tonga came down hard on the back of Marufuji. Tonga was great at quickly avoiding the strikes, but Marufuji landed enough of his kicks and knees. He won after hitting Shiranui.
SANADA defeated Tomohiro Ishii. This was great! Ishii has to be on everyone’s list for wrestler of the year. He's one of the most consistent guys anywhere and can have a killer match with just about anyone. SANADA has been great in his own right, so we got a sleeper match here. There were lots of great exchanges. The athleticism of SANADA meeting the hard strikes and brute force of Ishii. Ishii nailed a hard headbutt at one stage and hit several lariats, each getting a big near fall. There were some incredible counters in and out of Skull End, one of which Ishii countered into a Brainbuster, which SANADA blocked. SANADA got the submission win when he finally locked in the hold. This was a big win that he needed. A hell of a match here.
Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated Hiroyoshi Tenzan. This was very good. Tanahashi was booed when he went after the leg of Tenzan. The crowd really wanted to see Tenzan pull off the big win here. Tanahashi is a master of making others look good and he did that again. Tenzan missed a moonsault and Tanahashi missed a High Fly Flow. Tenzan couldn't get the job done with the Anaconda Vise. There were some fun near falls at the end before Tanahashi hit the High Fly Flow to end the match.
Bad Luck Fale defeated Kazuchika Okada. Going into this match, Fale had been booked like a monster after getting a couple of decisive wins, so it was completely plausible that he could beat Okada and that's exactly what happened. Fale isn't the greatest wrestler in the world, but NJPW do an incredible job of booking him like a monster when they need to. This was a really fun match. Okada got a big pop when he managed to slam Fale. Fale countered a Rainmaker into a big strike followed by The Grenade for a major near fall. After that it seemed a sure thing that Okada would win, but one Bad Luck Fall later and Fale had pinned the IWGP champion. This was a shocker and Fale will likely have a future title opportunity.
Hirooki Goto defeated Togi Makabe. This was a strange choice to main event the show, but it was a very good brawl between two rugged heavyweights. Makabe ended up with a bloody nose and mouth out of it. They traded strikes with the kicks of Goto and the lariats of Makabe. Some of Goto's moves are brutal looking, such as the Gordbuster onto the knee and the Ushigoroshi. Makabe hit the spider German, but missed the King Kong Kneedrop. Goto attempted the GTR on several occasions, but Makabe countered it. Makabe hit a nice German suplex before Goto was able to hit GTR and pick up the win.
This show is now available at NJPWWorld.com.
Block A standings after today’s matches:
Hiroshi Tanahashi 10
Naomichi Marufuji 10
Bad Luck Fale 10
Kazuchika Okada 10
Hirooki Goto 10
Togi Makabe 8
Tama Tonga 6
SANADA 6
Tomohiro Ishii 6
Hiroyoshi Tenzan 4
Day 16 takes place on Wednesday:
- Ryusuke Taguchi vs. David Finlay
- Satoshi Kojima, Manabu Nakanishi & Juice Robinson vs. Bad Luck Fale, Kenny Omega & Yujiro Takahashi
- Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Captain New Japan vs. SANADA & BUSHI
- Hiroshi Tanahashi, Togi Makabe, KUSHIDA, Jushin Thunder Liger & Tiger Mask IV vs. Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii, Hirooki Goto, Gedo & Naomichi Marufuji
B BLOCK : Toru Yano vs. EVIL
B BLOCK : YOSHI-HASHI vs. Tetsuya Naito
B BLOCK : Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Kenny Omega
B BLOCK : Katsuyori Shibata vs. Yuji Nagata
B BLOCK : Tomoaki Honma vs. Michael Elgin
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