Night 8 of G1 Climax 29 takes place in Hiroshima and has B Block matches. Let's watch it!
Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens & Yujiro Takahashi vs Will Ospreay & Tomoaki Honma & Yuya Uemura
Robot Honma got beat down at the start of this match, with Ospreay eventually coming in to clear house. This was fine.
Yujiro Takahashi pinned Yuya Uemura after a DDT. After the match Fale beat down Ospreay, softening him up for their upcoming match.
Zack Sabre Jr & Lance Archer & Minoru Suzuki vs Evil & Sanada & Bushi
A nice and proper faction vs faction match with Los Ingobernales de Japon and Suzuki-gun squaring off. Suzuki-gun attack LIJ before the bell and beat everyone down. Suzuki went on his usual rampage which I loved.
Suzuki pinned Bushi after a piledriver, then acted like a dick to the Young Lions. Suzuki continues his awesomeness.
Hiroshi Tanahashi & Shota Umino vs Kota Ibushi & Ren Narita
Tanahashi and Ibushi were in the finals of last year's G1 and the match was amazing, but their match in this tournament isn't for a few more shows. They're only against each other here due to faction tag nonsense.
The Young Lions seemed to work the majority of this match and that was fine.
Tanahashi pinned Narita after a Slingblade. Ibushi and Tanahashi had a stare down after the match. I can't wait for their match next week!
Kenta & Clark Connors & Karl Fredericks vs Kazuchika Okada & Yoshi-Hashi & Toa Henare
Kenta and Okada are both undefeated in the G1 so far at 4-0. Their match on the next show will be great, but I can't imagine Okada losing to someone they just bought in.
This match was great as Kenta and Okada kept trying to piss the other off. They kept knocking the other off the apron and just generally being awful.
Yoshi-Hashi tapped out one of the Americans with his Butterfly Lock. Post-match, Okada posed with his title in Kenta's general direction.
Toru Yano vs Juice Robinson
Yano went for a handshake to start and Juice agreed, but Yano took advantage and went for a roll up! That darn sneaky Yano! He then took Juice outside and tried to sellotape him to the security barriers but Juice stole the tape and threw it away. He got the ref to check for more tape and Yano had been hiding a second roll, which means the ref did a terrible job of pat-downs at the start of the match.
Juice told Yano to eat shit, punched him in the face then hit him with Pulp Friction for the win. A typical Yano match. I suppose this is as good a time as any to say I don't like the name Pulp Friction, nor the move itself, it looks too hokey to me.
Taichi vs Hirooki Goto
During Goto's entrance, Taichi beat up one of the US Young Lions, stripped him of his LA Dojo t-shirt and stamped on it, very much upsetting Goto, but very much entertaining me.
The actual match was fine. Goto had control for most of it, at one point Taichi tried to hit Goto with a mic stand but Goto grabbed it and tossed it out the ring.
Taichi won after kicking Goto in the dick. I'm sad Goto is doing so bad this tournament as I think he's great and he's really leaned down recently.
Shingo Takagi vs Jon Moxley
These two started the match hot but Mox quickly took control after hurting Shingo's knee. The rest of the match focused almost solely on that body part, in classic pro wrestling fashion.
Mox did a Figure Four, then a Figure Four around the ring post, and then he put Shingo's leg in a chair and hit it with another chair.
Moxley finally won with Shingo tapping to a Texas Cloverleaf. Really good match, thought I'm surprised how one-sided it was.
Jay White vs Jeff Cobb
I was really not that interested in this match,
Jay got his first win of the tournament with a Blade Runner. Not that great.
Tetuya Naito vs Tomohiro Ishii
These two always put on great matches so there's no doubt this would be too, but I don't think it was memorable.
The best thing about this match is how Ishii was having none of Naito's bullshit, it was great. There was a moment where Naito spit on Ishii and the look on Ishii's face was terrifying.
Naito won after a couple of Destinos. This match was pretty great but I think it could have been better. Naito still doesn't seem 100% to me. Also, as I've already slagged off Juice's finisher in this post, I don't like the Destino, it looks far too forced to me and rarely looks good. I wish Naito used something different.
Conclsuion
Good show, but not a great show. In any other month this would be a really good show, but as it's surrounded by these other amazing G1 shows it can't stand out. Moxley/Shingo and Naito/Ishii are worth going out of your way to see.