DAY 9 7/29/2017, AICHI, AICHI PREFECTURAL GYMNASIUM (A BLOCK)
You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself put over a guy only five years younger than you and in much worse shape. Admittedly I'm hard on Makabe, mainly because he's like an anti-Ishii in his ability to drag everyone down to their worst level, but he matches up well against Nagata as another old bull who refuses to quit. Nagata comes out with cupping marks on his back, a nice touch. After several stellar showings in a row from Blue Justice, Nagata basically gets the night off in laying down for Makabe's sluggish offense, though he gets in his usual kicks and xploder to let everyone know who's boss. All the usual spots are here, but even if nagata is going through the motions with an opponent who won't go in any unique direction, he still brings the fire. Some of his punches sound legitimate, and he always knows where the camera is to sell his fire. A battle on the top turnbuckle finds both men winded and focused solely on hurting the other guy, with Makabe ultimately striking Nagata down, landing a knee strike and then a lariat for a near-fall before the King Kong knee drop ends it. As is the running theme of everyone's A Block matches with Makabe, this was Nagata's weakest match of the tournament, but even here he was so compelling. This was probably Nagata's best shot at winning a match in this G1, which is a shame. ***1/4
Bad Luck Fale vs. Kota Ibushi
Ibushi gets Fale in the corner early and lays in one of his kicks to a completely unfazed Fale, leading to a wonderful facial expression on Ibushi not of fear but genuine disbelief. Fale spends most of his time wrecking Ibushi's leg to stop any high-flying before it can start. But Ibushi powers through, throwing a kick that he sells before doing a standing moonsault and generally reversing Fale's attacks. Ibushi shows off his strength by nailing a German suplex before he drags Fale around on the floor all the way to the wall, where he promptly climbs up into the mezzanine to hit a moonsault to one of the biggest pops of the entire tournament. Back in the ring, Ibushi nails a missile dropkick but then runs into the pissed-off wall of flesh that is Fale, who proceeds to thrash him without mercy, removing Ibushi's head with a lariat and then setting up bomb after bomb for Ibushi to desperately worm out of before he finally got dropped then hit with a running splash, grenade and bad luck fall for the three-count. For the most part, Fale has been booked well this year, giving up a lot of offense to put over his opponents while landing wins in dominating fashion. Ibushi got to have a thrilling, DDT-esque spot while remaining mostly grounded elsewhere, and work smart despite being unable to overcome Fale's mass. ***
Hirooki Goto vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
Goto tries to get out ahead here and takes the fight to Sabre early, beating on the boy until Desperado distracts him enough for Sabre to start tying him up. Sabre is getting over so well in Japan; he gets Goto so knotted at one point that the crowd legitimately gasps as the multiple points of torque being applied on Goto's limbs and back. Goto hits his groove back and hits some running strikes on Sabre before it mostly goes 50-50 from there. Sabre focused less and less on his submissions as the match wore on, instead taking a page from Ibushi and trying to show he could hang as a striker. Surprisingly, this worked out decently well, mainly thanks to Sabre opting for targeting over attempting to sell power; late in the match, he wards off Goto with scouted blows to both elbows and a knee. Ultimately, however, Sabre pays the price for his pride. There were some nifty spots in this match, and Goto and Sabre do have chemistry, but it's still in an embryonic form, not fully developed, and they've yet to have that blow-away match that truly does seem possible. Maybe after this tournament when Sabre likely slots into the NEVER equation they might meet with a high-stakes match that pulls it out of them. As it stands, this was a good but undistinguished bout, albeit the strongest match of the night so far. ***1/4
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. YOSHI-HASHI
HASHI works best as an underdog, which puts him at a disadvantage squared off against the mangled Tanahashi. This match could have used the increasingly heel Tanahashi, which is teased near the start with a cocky clean break, but soon these two just settle into a match. It doesn't help that all of Tanahashi's show-offs (hoisting himself back over the top rope, playing air guitar) get huge pops. Tanahashi works over the leg with dragon screw whips and a cloverleaf, attempting to level the playing field. In spite of this, the leg des not fact into the true meat of the match, with Tanahashi letting HASHI run wild (with nary any selling of the leg) and then falling back on the more general moves of his arsenal. HASHI has had good matches all tournament long, but he just can't get over the hump for actual greatness. Here, he looked like the mid-carder he is, hitting some moves with no sense of storytelling until the main eventer could put him down without having to change up any of his boilerplate approach. **1/2
Tomohiro Ishii vs. Tetsuya Naito
Ishii marches down the ramp with total focus, acknowledging fans' outreached hands by letting the backs of his hands gently tap them as they swing at his side. Then the bell rings and he's all caution, warily circling Naito before they lock up and head out for some basic floor fighting. Naito toys with Ishii for a while until Ishii lights up with chops and corner strikes until Naito grabs a hanging neckbreaker and then a normal variation in center ring. Things continue to grind along in first gear until Ishii gets a slam and then goes in for more corner strikes, a shoulder charge, and a delayed suplex. Naito foolishly targets the square inch of space that Ishii calls a neck, hitting first a neckbreaker then a corner dropkick to the back of Ishii's head. Ishii sells like a million bucks, fights out of a tornado DDT then hits a quick suplex to break up Naito's flow. Naito spits a thick gob across Ishii's face and it's time for Ishii to get proper mad, planting him in a corner and taking him up for a superplex that Naito escapes into yet another hanging neckbreaker.
At long last, this match heats up, with both men trading suplexes and each cutting off the other ay every turn. Ishii throws some headbutts and hoists Naito up for a huge powerbomb for a near-fall. Naito counters a brainbuster into his tornado DDT then lands a desperation suplex when Ishii keeps coming for him. Ishii grabs Naito's neck for a reverse suplex but Naito hits Destino for a close near-fall. Naito tries for another but Ishii stops him with a Pele kick. This crowd is molten for Naito, but Ishii cannot hear their cries. He stops a Destino at the last second, sprints to the ropes for a sliding lariat, then a running one, and Naito looks dead. A brainbuster seals the deal. This match got there in the end, but this could have used more of Ishii's charging out of the gate instead of working this like a Dome main event. Naito didn't look in trouble until the final few minutes, but neither did Ishii look like he was working from underneath. This was a missed opportunity, a devastating finishing sequence without the necessary setup to push this over the edge into the kind of house-burning match these two can have and have had. ***1/4
OVERALL: Nothing on the card was bad, barring a mediocre match-up between YOSHI-HASHI and Tanahashi that exposed the former's plateau. By the same token, nothing on this show stood out until the final minutes of the main event. Naito looks to be well on track to winning G1, which would potentially set up a fine briefcase match at King of Pro Wrestling between these two that offers more possibility for absolutely killing it. Nonetheless, anyone pressed for time can skip this show entirely.
DAY 10 7/30/2017, GIFU, GIFU INDUSTRIAL HALL (B BLOCK)
Toru Yano vs. EVIL
After a surprisingly elaborate G1 performance, Yano gets back to his roots, rushing to get in his cock shots (to my shock, the ref actually stopped this), only to hit one that EVIL powered through for an STO. NR
Minoru Suzuki vs. Tama Tonga
The start of this match managed to be funnier than the Yano match, with Tonga sneaking up behind Desperado as he trails Suzuki to the ring and holding the Suzuki-gun banner over his face as if that might convince Suzuki not to question why his attendant just grew a foot taller. The two spend an eon out in the crowd before the bell rings, but their brawl lacks any heat as they trade warm-up strikes around the crowd until Suzuki wings Tonga over a barrier for pouring some water on him. The two make it into the ring just long enough for the match to begin officially before spilling back out and brawling for what seems like an eternity, with Suzuki literally ripping up the barricades to throw each section at Tonga before the ref decides to finally start counting the two out. Tonga and Suzuki trade dull strikes at ringside before diving in at 19. Suzuki finally has enough and goes for a few sleepers before stopping things with the Gotch piledriver. On paper this match looks so good, with SZG relegated to the margins and Suzuki looking like he just wants to murder his opponent, but in spite of Suzuki using any metal in his vicinity, he never really reached the level of fire he can usually mine in his sleep. Tonga floor brawling offered a chance for him to step outside his fleet-footed comfort zone, but he just looked sluggish, and this match puttered along with not an ounce of heat. In fact, with its sloppy booking, dull brawling and meaningless finish, this was the worst match of the tournament so far. *
Michael Elgin vs. SANADA
After two disposable matches, this looks to deliver, and Elgin and SANADA get down to it without any fuss, with Elgin running a train on his opponent, who manages to meet Elgin halfway in the striking department. Elgin holds SANADA vertical in a delayed suplex long enough for the crowd to make their way out of the building and into the nearest subway before dropping him, but Elgin balances this smug display later on by hanging half on the apron and half in the ring when SANADA recovers outside so that the man won't get counted out. Once SANADA gets back inside, these two start to rev up, with Elgin going for lariats and Germans while SANADA evades what he can and endures what he cannot. Even so, this doesn't quite get the crowd going until toward the end, where SANADA kicks out of the falcon arrow and then proceeds to dodge around Elgin while lobbing his own moves to stagger Big Mike. Skull End weakens Elgin enough for SANADA to sprint up for a moonsault that ends the match. ***1/4
Kenny Omega vs. Satoshi Kojima
Kenny lampshades the fact that he's wearing the rainbow tights out, addressing the camera with a rhetorical dialogue with a fan, "'Why are you wearing the house show tights?' Because this is a house show." He's got no respect for the old man he has to battle, and so he's just going to toy with him. The first sign of trouble comes early when Kenny shoulder charges Kojima and the old-man no-sells and instead sends Kenny reeling backward. The screwing-around continues with Kenny teasing Tenzan at ringside and walking away from Kojima doing a dive, giggling at the man hitting the floor before giving him a bomb on the apron. Omega won't even take his shirt off, that's how much he cares. Eventually, though, Kojima rallies, because he must; New Japan is running this narrative of persevering old legends into the ground, and yet Kojima and Nagata continue to be absurdly reliable in this G1. Watching Kenny slowly realize he needs to stop fucking around is great storytelling that plays on his wide-ranging facial expressions, but it is through Kojima's muted determination that this fear truly manifests. A turnbuckle battle ends with Omega planting Kojima, but he will not be stopped, and he comes back charging and manages to escape a One-Winged Angel before hitting a brainbuster and then moving into a stretch where he throws just as many bombs as teases as many finishers as Omega. Amid all the usual signatures, Kojima actually hits Emerald Flowsion for a super-close near-fall and now Omega's playfulness is wholly gone. Kojima fires up, but he just can't withstand Omega, who hits a few V Triggers (though not as many as his bigger matches) and wins with his finisher. A good match with a great story, particularly in the way that Omega went a separate route than Okada took, not merely opting for heel behavior but completely no-selling Kojima as a threat to make it all the more satisfying with the New Japan Dad began to rock his opponent's world. It may not have been enough, but Kojima still looks great in defeat. ***1/2
Kazuchika Okada vs. Juice Robinson
I'm sorry for turning every Robinson match into the Juice Robinson Selling Report, but this kid never ceases to amaze. Emerging not nearly as mummified as he was post-Suzuki, Robinson gamely makes his way down the ramp, pausing frequently to interact with the (mostly female) fans who swarm the rails to touch him. (That's another thing; New Japan doesn't use too many crowd reaction shots, yet they've increasingly cut to the audience when Juice enters the venue, and tonight they hang on some fans absolutely jittering when his music hits, with one woman actually looking faint.) Yet after Juice leaps up on a turnbuckle as his name is announced, he comes down gingerly, making sure to set down on his good leg before putting any weight on the one that's been torn apart during the tournament. This kid is 28 and honestly he should be teaching classes at training gyms.
As for the match itself, Okada starts off in a pissy mood because a decent portion of the crowd has the audacity to cheer for Juice, and the two start off slow, all the better to sell Juice's wear and tear and Okada's dismissal of this unworthy opponent. Juice slows down Okada's attempts to run around him with some arm drags and holds and even grounds Okada with a lariat that the ace decides to walk off on the floor before Juice attempts to charge him. Okada flips him over and then grabs a chair, sets it up and stands on it to start a condescending clap for himself before eventually tripping Juice onto it. The casual beating continues until they both get back in the ring for Okada to be more visible as he punishes Juice. But Juice will not stay down, and he chains together some offense before Okada starts going after the knee and gets a spinebuster as a warning. Juice is starting to move more than he has in the last few B Block shows, rallied by the importance of this match, but Okada is just a complete shit, locking in a Figure Four and adding extra pressure to the bum knee in the dead middle of the ring. Juice's entire body is red and the veins are popping everywhere. Juice hits some of his weak-legged strikes before fending off a tombstone and trades suplex teases from the apron, only for Okada to punch the knee out from under the kid and flip him over. The requisite countout tease leaves Juice dazed and barely able to get back into the ring, but once he's there, this match heats up nicely, Juice firing up for heavy moves like powerbombs as Okada takes advantage of his foe's ailing strength to slip away. In spite of it all, though, he just can't keep this kid down, and he finally snaps and starts screaming obscenities at Juice for his insolence. Okada whales on him but Juice begs for more, refusing to go down until he's completely knocked out. He stops an Alabama slam and gets a powerbomb for two. A pulp friction attempt becomes the Rainmaker, but Okada is so pissed he refuses to go for a cover, holding the kid up and landing another, then going for a third, only for Juice to punch this asshole right in the face to a massive pop. He goes for pulp friction again, but Okada catches him in a nasty German and then hits the Rainmaker again to put Juice away. ****
OVERALL: A mostly middling card delivered an excellent main event that built the ongoing storylines of both its wrestlers. Juice is walking out of G1 as the purest babyface since El Generico, with New Japan blatantly behind him as an increasingly talented worker and an unimpeachable character. Okada, meanwhile, is reaching the brink of a story that has been in the works since he regained the title last year. His heelish matches during this tournament have complemented the rising drama of his epic title defenses, doubling down on the sense that the ace is overextending himself and believing himself invincible, and a hard fall is coming.
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