We open with Gabe Kidd’s music, who is meant to be in the main event… and here he is on crutches with his right knee bandaged up (it had been taped up in most of his matches recently). He stops by English commentary to ask Chris to come to live translate his promo.
He has hyperextended his knee and is off tonight’s show. He’s not saying he’s off the G1, he wants to be back in the second he’s cleared.
Zack wins their match via forfeit, the main event will now be Taichi vs Yuya. We’ll see what happens in the future for Gabe, the next B Block matches aren’t until the 23rd so he has a couple days to get evaluated and heal.
G1 A Block: Callum Newman (0 points) def Hiroshi Tanahashi (2 points)
(point totals from before today’s results) — (7:32, Prince’s Curse)
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Good for the length. Bad knees vs bad knee, with the youth pulling ahead.
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Post match, Callum goes and bows to the fallen Tana.
G1 B Block: Drilla Moloney (2 points) def Shota Umino (2 points) — (12:30, Drilla Killa)
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Shota is much more stoic today, and walks around the ring a few times before seeing a young fan in the front row who he goes to give a wristband to.
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Quick start from both, colliding in the middle for a strike battle. They know each other from Shota’s excursion in RevPro.
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Pretty good. I’m still very interested in what’s going to happen to Shota over the course of the tourney (and back half of the year in general). Finish was nasty.
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Post match, Drilla celebrates his win then tosses his ice pack on Shota. He does a little fanservice with War Dogs fans before leaving.
G1 A Block: Boltin Oleg (0 points) def Ryohei Oiwa (2 points) — (9:10, Kamikaze)
- Very good big boy battle with some grapple flavor.
G1 B Block: YOSHI-HASHI (2 points) def Ren Narita (2 points) — (1:26, roll up)
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Ren comes out first, but while he’s off-camera during YH’s entrance he leaves the ring so he can jump YH from behind when he gets to the end of the ramp. Ren chokes YH with his own staff and then beats him down on the outside/in the crowd for a few minutes.
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HoT Shenanigans level: high, but ineffective. Lots of ref distraction and a low blow, but Ren got caught when going for a second low blow and rolled up.
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Post match, an enraged Ren shoves the ref and chokes YH with the staff. Winds up to hit YH with it but gets a boot to the knee instead, and then a massive low blow as revenge.
G1 A Block: David Finlay[w/Gedo] (0 points) def SANADA (0 points) — (10:21, Overkill)
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SANADA’s got the disco ball fit on today, so it looks like his entrance gear will be a surprise every Block match.
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HoT Shenanigans level: relatively mild. Mainly just SANADA bringing Gedo into the ring and putting him in the paradise lock so he could try the guitar shot, which was countered by Finlay.
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Chris is very much hammering in that SANADA’s having a crisis and suffering by trying to be the old SANADA; and yes he counted Gedo being put in the Paradise Lock as the old SANADA.
G1 B Block: Great-O-Khan (0 points) def Shingo Takagi (0 points) — (12:12, Eliminator)
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Nagai is once again the one to open the ropes for Shingo, and is in his corner for the length of the match.
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Pre-lockup crowd poll is maybe 60/40 in favor of O-Khan.
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Another very good one.
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Post match, GOK poses over Shingo as the latter rolls out of the ring and is helped to the back.
G1 A Block: EVIL[w/Dick Togo, Don Fale] (2 points) def Yota Tsuji (2 points) — (11:01, reverse EVIL)
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They do tease that it might be Yota’s twin brother making his entrance, a thing he’s used to trick EVIL before, but it is the real Tsuji. He’s got new blue and gold gear today.
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EVIL jumps Tsuji while he’s posing on the top rope. Nagai is again in the Unaffiliated corner, and early on helps negate some Dick interference.
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HoT Shenanigans level: very high. Tsuji had counters for some of it, which made the match fun. Surprisingly the finishing sequence was pretty clean.
G1 B Block: El Phantasmo[w/Jado] (0 points) def KONOSUKE TAKESHITA[w/Rocky Romero] (2 points) — (15:02, CR III)
- Real good shit.
Before the main event, ZSJ comes out and joins English commentary.
G1 A Block: Taichi (0 points) def Yuya Uemura (2 points) — (19:02, Black Mephisto)
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I missed when they finally made a new version of Taichi’s extended entrance video with no Miho in it, but the last vestiges of his muse are gone now.
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Pre lockup crowd poll is 85% Taichi. We’re still in his home prefecture.
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Real. Good. Shit.
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Post match promo from Taichi. Thanks Sapporo for their support. This unexpectedly being the main event means he lost in the main event in Sapporo, but now won in the main event in Sapporo. The fans who believe in him, will see him be the first Hokkaido native to win a G1 Climax.
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They play Taichi’s music, but he tells them to stop because Yuya’s still laying in the ring.
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Asks Yuya if he’s okay, then jokes that maybe he went a little too hard on him. Tells Yuya he was great, there’s no doubt he’s the sun for NJPW’s future; but not yet and Taichi will be an obstacle for him as many times as it takes. Talks about their time in J4/5G and how that lead them here, and how their time in Hontai will bring them both forward into the future.
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Taichi asks for the J4/5G theme to be played. It starts for a second, then stops because he realized he forgot to thank the crowd, then starts for real. He kneels down to take Yuya’s hand and help him up. They raise each other’s hands and hug. Taichi goes to the corner so Yuya can do his Sun pose, then they hug again and Yuya leaves.
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Taichi calls Yasuda into the ring to raise his hand, they’ll be tagging on undercards soon.
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Taichi goes around ringside to do fanservice, and Zack leaves commentary to have a friendly standoff with him.
——Block Standings——
A Block
EVIL — 4 points (2-0) — wins: Callum, Tsuji – losses:
Yota Tsuji — 2 points (1-1) — wins: SANADA – losses: EVIL
Hiroshi Tanahashi — 2 points (1-1) — wins: Taichi – losses: Callum
Callum Newman — 2 points (1-1) — wins: Tana – losses: EVIL
Ryohei Oiwa — 2 points (1-1) — wins: Finlay – losses: Oleg
David Finlay — 2 points (1-1) — wins: SANADA – losses: Oiwa
Taichi — 2 points (1-1) — wins: Yuya– losses: Tana
Yuya Uemura — 2 points (1-1) — wins: Oleg – losses: Taichi
Boltin Oleg — 2 points (1-1) — wins: Oiwa – losses: Yuya
SANADA — 0 points (0-2) — wins: – losses: Tsuji, Finlay
B Block
YOSHI-HASHI — 4 points (2-0) — wins: Shingo, Ren – losses:
Drilla Moloney — 4 points (2-0) — wins: GOK, Shota – losses:
Ren Narita — 2 points (1-1) — wins: ZSJ – losses: YH
Zack Sabre Jr. — 2 points (1-1) — wins: Gabe – losses: Narita
El Phantasmo — 2 points (1-1) — wins: TAKE – losses: Shota
TAKESHITA — 2 points (1-1) — wins: Gabe – losses: ELP
Shota Umino — 2 points (1-1) — wins: ELP – losses: Drilla
GOK — 2 points (1-1) — wins: Shingo – losses: Drilla
Shingo Takagi — 0 points (0-2) — wins: – losses: YH, GOK
Gabe Kidd — 0 points (0-2) — wins: – losses: TAKE, ZSJ
———
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by EffingKENTA