G1 on a Saturday so I get to watch it live. Nice nice nice. A Block woo!
Jon Moxley & Shota Umino vs Juice Robinson and Yota Tsuji
Moxley beat Juice for the US title in his first match in NJPW a couple of months ago so there's a good story here. These two aren't actually fighting in a G1 match until the end of the tournament but are facing in a tag here due to complicated faction nonsense in the other tags.
This match started with Mox and Juice throwing their own partners out of the ring and went at each other. The Lions eventually tagged in and Mox and Juice fought to the back. Yota got Shota in a boston crab but Mox came back for the save.
Shota then put Yota in a crab of his own and got the submission. Post-match Juice ran out and attacked Moxley, with the two having to be pulled apart. Their rematch on the last night will be really good.
Hirooki Goto & Toru Yano and Yuya Uemura vs Taichi & Minoru Suzuki & Yoshinobu Kanemaru
Minoru Suzuki continues to be the best part of any tag match he's in. He terrorised Uemura at the start of this match. Later on Uemura fought back against Suzuki which was a big mistake on his part, as Suzuki then killed him.
Kanemaru pinned Uemura after his Deep Impact DDT. Suzuki-gun beat down some Young Lions on the way out.
Jay White & Chase Owens & Takahashi Yujiro vs Jeff Cobb & Tomoaki Honma & Toa Henare
Cobb was impressive in this, he managed to suplex Chase and Yujiro at the same time. Just getting Chase Owens up for a suplex is really impressive, but someone else as well, oh boy!
Chase pins Henare after a Package Piledriver.
Tetsuya Naito & Shingo Takagi & Bushi vs Tomohiro Ishii & Yoshi-Hashi & Ren Narita
Fine match.
Bushi pinned Narita after an MX. Post-match Ishii chopped the hell out of Naito. Their match on the next show could be great if Naito shows up for it.
Bad Luck Fale vs Zack Sabre Jr
Zack started in control with lots of submissions until Fale's Bullet Club buddies interfered and the match went to the outside.
Fale beat up Zack and took him deep into the crowd, fully in control. Chase Owens interfered and held Zack for Fale to hit, but Zack got out of the way and Fale knocked down Chase.
Zack finally tured the tables and put Fale in a triangle choke. They're really far from the ring and the referee started his count. When it got to 13 ZSJ ran back to the ring just in time for Fale to get counted out. Nice!
Lance Archer vs Hiroshi Tanahashi
Archer takes out all Young Lions on his way to the ring, I love it! Tanahashi comes out and dropkicks Archer before the bell, getting a sneaky upper hand.
Archer continues to dominate throughout most of the match, getting the Claw on at one point but Tanahashi got to the ropes.
Tanahashi won with a sneaky rollup after countering Archer's big slam thing. Good match!
Evil vs Kenta
Evil took Kenta through the crowd and tried to suplex him into a bunch of chairs. Kenta turned it around and suplexed Evil instead. Comeuppance!
This was a good match with lots of back and forth striking, neither really getting a leg up on the other.
Kenta eventually won with Go 2 Sleep. Really good match.
Sanada vs Kota Ibushi
This is the battle of who is the most beautiful boy in all of New Japan.
The first few minutes had some mat wrestling, after which both guys went to opposite turnbuckles and asked the crowd to cheer for them. The crowd was a pretty even split.
Things heated up with a little bit of high-flying but mostly just strikes and holds. There was a lot of really good back and forth with neither able to get control.
After a long struggle, Ibushi won with a Bomaye followed by Kamagoye. Great match!
Will Ospreay vs Kazuchika Okada
Ospreay is the Junior Heavyweight Champion, Okada the Heavyweight Champion. It's a battle of champions!
This match was awesome, both guys worked really hard. Ospreay's neck is still hurt and Okada targeted it with most of his offence. Will tried to fight back but for most of the match Okada had control.
Things went outside and Ospreay hit an Oscutter that nearly got Okada counted out. He then hit another Oscutter in the ring but Okada kicked out!
After a bunch on insane counters including a Rainmaker that Ospreay takes and flips around lifting Okada into a Stormbreaker, Okada then jumps down and hits two Rainmakers in a row for the win. Absolutely outstanding match! Is this now my match of the tournament?
Conclusion
Really, really good show after the slight disappointment of yesterday. All the block matches were good, Evil/Kenta and Ibushi/Sanada were great, and Ospreay/Okada was amazing. Such a brilliant show, highly recommend all the block matches. The next show is on Wednesday so I get a few days off, see you then!