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10/11 NJPW G1 CLIMAX REPORT

G1 Climax Day 14, October 11th:

B Block

Zack Sabre Jr defeated YOSHI-HASHI. This was an enjoyable match. ZSJ went after the arm, and assaulted it like only he can. YOSHI did he best to make a comeback, and locked on the Butterfly Lock, but ZSJ fought out and went back to the arm. There was some good back and forth in the final minutes, as YOSHI showed some fire and went for some of his big moves, but ZSJ found a way out of everything. There was a great near fall when YOSHI countered an armbar into a pin, but in the end ZSJ tied up YOSHI in an indescribable submission. YOSHI was tied up so much that he couldn’t even tap out, he had to verbally submit. 

KENTA defeated Toru Yano. Lots of stalling at the start of this. A water spray bottle was brought into the match, but the top broke off it and the whole thing went to hell. The ref ended up with water in his eyes. KENTA tried to use his briefcase and it opened, revealing that some trickster had filled it with rolls of tape. KENTA used the tape to tie Yano to the stage, and won by countout. 

SANADA defeated Juice Robinson.  The first several minutes of this were fine. It was like most SANADA matches, it was perfectly fine, and hard to fault, but it’s not really setting the world on fire and nothing really noteworthy is happening. There was some solid back and forth, and Juice did his best to interact with the crowd. Things picked up a gear in the final stretch as they battled between the Skull End and Pulp Friction. Juice went for the move, but SANADA blocked it and went for a moonsault, but landed on his feet when Juice moved. They went back and forth for several minutes as they battled for the upper hand with counter after counter until SANADA finally put on the Skull End (applied badly as usual), and put SANADA down long enough to hit a moonsault and get a pin. 

Hirooki Goto defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi.  Very good match, with a big upset finish. Tanahashi targeted the knee of Goto from the start, and this was the story of the match. Goto fought his way back after hitting an Ushigoroshi (not smart with an injured knee, Goto).  The traded forearms, which Goto won and from there he built some momentum. Goto hit another Ushigoroshi, this time from the middle rope, and of course hurt his knee even more. Tanahashi fought out of a GTR, so Goto turned it into a reverse GTR. Tanahashi tried a surprise roll up, but Goto blocked it and hit the GTR to score a very decisive win over The Ace. 

EVIL defeated Tetsuya Naito.  This was their third meeting this year, they had one win each, and both matches, both for the IWGP double title, we’re very average. This was probably the best of the three, which isn’t to say it was good, it was okay. You spend the whole match just waiting for the ref bump/interference from Dick Togo to start. 

EVIL did all his usual outside the ring spots to take control with some help from Togo.  The match built as it went on. Naito used a Koji Clutch to wear EVIL down. EVIL hit a nice half and half suplex, followed by a lariat, but was able to turn things when he hit a Destino variation.  Dick Togo eventually tried to get involved, trying to use wire to choke Naito after a low blow from EVIL, but Naito countered and dropped Togo. Naito avoided an STO and hit a Destino for a good near fall, but EVIL was able to quickly hit the STO again and get a pretty clean win over the IWGP Champion. 

B Block Standing:

• Tetsuya Naito -- 10 points 
• EVIL -- 10 points 
• Zack Sabre Jr. -- 8 points 
• Hirooki Goto -- 8 points 
• SANADA -- 8 points 
• Toru Yano -- 6 points 
• KENTA -- 6 points 
• Hiroshi Tanahashi -- 6 points 
• Juice Robinson -- 6 points 
• YOSHI-HASHI -- 2 points (Eliminated)

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