Pre-Show: Tatsuya Matsumoto, Tiger Mask, Togi Makabe def Zane Jay, Masatora Yasuda, Shoma Kato — (9:48, Boston Crab)
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I don’t know if Zane is the one who taught Matsumoto “Fuck off,” but someone taught him that and you could read his lips over the absurdly loud Makabe theme dub.
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Matsumoto starts with Zane.
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Yasuda has both knees taped up. (Big Tater Tot energy, RIP.)
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Post match, Matsumoto goes over and gives Zane a cheeky little kick. This was the first win in Matsumoto’s career.
Ryusuke Taguchi, El Desperado, YOSHI-HASHI, Yuya Uemura, Shota Umino def Master Wato, YOH, Toru Yano, Satoshi Kojima, Taichi — (8:54, Roll Up)
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Taichi is visibly unenthused to be teaming with Kojima again.
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During the entrances, Chris Charlton reveals Despe will be part of Forbidden Door in some way; and suggests Yuya (who’ll be in the UK for RevPro) will be as well.
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After a friendly staredown between both teams, Yuya steps up to Taichi and they end up starting.
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There was a little moment where Shota negated some Kojima offense, and then when he responded with his own the crowd booed.
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We once again got some reluctant-on-Taichi’s-part double teaming with Kojima.
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Also a fun moment with Shota and Yuya hitting really nice dual dropkicks.
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Pretty shocking win from Taguchi in a fun match. Post match, Guch indicates he wants a shot at the NEVER 6 titles that Wato, YOH, and Yano have. He tries to recruit Despe, who just waves him off while staring down YOH (who happened to be standing nearby) and leaves.
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Meanwhile Shota is getting a little cheeky with Taichi.
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Update: In the Backstage Comments, Taguchi is basically non-consensually booking Despe in the match.
Yujiro Takahashi, Don Fale def Tomoaki Honma, Boltin Oleg — (6:58, Elbow Drop)
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We get all the way through the entrances before Boltin and Honma take the initiative to get a quick (-ish, in Honma’s case) start. Boltin and Fale are legal first.
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HoT Shenanigans level: essentially none, at least during the match. This was honestly more like a regular old Bullet Club match.
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Post match, Boltin gets free of Yuj and comes in to attack Fale. But Yujiro gets the cane to even the odds. Fale gives Boltin the elbow drop, Yuj counts the “pin,” and then hands Fale the NEVER title. He poses with it but leaves it on the corpse of it’s current rightful owner before leaving.
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Chris tells us he’s been told to pay attention to Boltin’s Backstage Comments this weekend.
Jakob Austin Young, Callum Newman, Great-O-Khan def Katsuya Murashima, El Phantasmo[w/Jado], Hiroshi Tanahashi — (9:34, Firebolt)
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These three UE guys all have their own individual hand signs now.
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ELP puts his glasses on Tana and Jado puts his pair on Murashima. Then they all compare physiques.
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In recent Backstage Comments, ELP’s started campaigning for his Tana singles match; as he’s never had one before.
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GOK starts with Tana.
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They did the Murashima air guitar “he’s right behind me isn’t he?” spot again, but it went slightly better for him this time.
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Ariake got the “E-L-P” chant-in-time-with-the-taunt memo.
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Fun little match.
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Post match, Tana comes back in to help Murashima out and has a light staredown with Callum and GOK.
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Chris Charlton “hints” we’ll be seeing new UE members soon.
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Update: in his Backstage Comments, GOK appears to say the match at the G1 Finals night may be United Empire’s last (or his last as part of the group? The Japanese fans seem just as confused as I am). They need a “high-quality sacrifice” as an opponent, someone monumental, to enhance the Empire’s victory.
Daiki Nagai, Shingo Takagi def Gedo, David Finlay — (6:34, WAR Special)
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Chris Charlton basically says that this was originally supposed to be Shingo opposite Gabe, likely as build to a Global title match.
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Nagai steps up to Finlay and shoves him, they start.
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This was another fun one. Shingo and Nagai had time together.
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Post match, Finlay steps up to Shingo and they do a brief bark/Oi! exchange before Finlay leaves (he does not help Gedo leave).
Yoshinobu Kanemaru, SANADA[disco ball version] def Taiji Ishimori, Drilla Moloney — (6:25, pin [after a guitar to the dome])
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After a bit of a dry spell, we get SANADA making the effort to grace us with fashion again.
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When he gets to the ramp, Drilla runs in to attack SANADA. Ishimori follows, and he and Nobu are left in the ring to start.
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HoT Shenanigans level: mid-high. War Dogs tried to get smart with fighting fire with fire but got burned.
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Drilla my dude, you’ve gotta have a meeting with the camera guys, they’re constantly catching you blatantly blading.
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Post match, SANADA stands over Drilla as he bleeds.
DOUKI, SHO, Ren Narita def Hartley Jackson, Kosei Fujita, Ryohei Oiwa — (8:30, Figure Four Knee Bar)
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The House jump while TMDK are disrobing. SHO keeps Fujita in the ring to start.
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Ren selling big gut shots by sounding like he’s gonna hurl is one of my favorites.
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HoT Shenanigans level: mid-high.
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Post match, Fujita gets on the apron to do a little trash talking with the Junior Tag Champs.
G1 Quarterfinal: EVIL[w/Dick Togo, Don Fale] (A1) def Yota Tsuji[w/Shingo Takagi, Daiki Nagai] (A3) — (18:01, Ref Stoppage [Scorpion Deathlock])
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Bluji’s brought as much backup as he can for tonight (Hiromu’s on the NOAH show that started 7 minutes before Tsuji’s entrance).
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The trios have a standoff instead of EVIL doing his full entrance. EVIL waits until like a second before the bell was going to ring to get a running start.
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At one point EVIL did the Nagata Lock and salute; which you might want to put a pin in because the first NJPW show after the G1 Finals is a Blue Justice show.
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HoT Shenanigans level: Honestly not as bad as they could’ve been. No extra members, just the three that made an official entrance at the beginning of the match.
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They sold that it was a fast call by the ref because Tsuji had multiple times taken bumps that ended up knocking him out; the last being a huge powerbomb from Fale. He did keep selling pretty heavily after the match and required help out of the ring and arena.
G1 Semifinal: KONOSUKE TAKESHITA[w/Rocky Romero] (B3) def Zack Sabre Jr. (B1) — (26:46, Raging Fire)
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Crowd was pretty fucking deflated at the beginning of this.
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Pretty fucking great, as you’d expect. Will probably go down better on the re-watch when it’s not got the lingering stink of the match before it. They got the crowd back, who leant pro-TAKE.
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Post match, TAKE goes over to chat with Zack for a minute before standing up and getting his hand raised. Then he waves off the YL who are trying to help Zack out, and offers him a handshake. Zack kind of accepts (just holds TAKE’s hand for a second) and then rolls out of the ring
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The entire House come down to surround the ring. EVIL stares down TAKE, Rocky gets ready to fight. But then EVIL just hops off the apron and HoT leaves.
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TAKE promo: (entirely Chris’s translation because I don’t fucking care RN) I need to say to you just one thing, keep your eyes on me. Watch me, because I will make this interesting. From The Alpha.”
——G1 35 Finals——
EVIL (A1) vs KONOSUKE TAKESHITA (B3)
——G1 35 Semifinals——
KONOSUKE TAKESHITA (B3) vs Zack Sabre Jr. (B1)
Yota Tsuji (A3) vs EVIL (A1)
——G1 35 Quarterfinals——
Shota Umino (B2) vs Yota Tsuji (A3)
David Finlay (A2) vs KONOSUKE TAKESHITA (B3)
——Block Standings——
A Block
1st) EVIL — 12 points (6-3) — wins: Callum, Tsuji, Taichi, Oiwa, Oleg, Tana – losses: SANADA, Yuya, Finlay
2nd) David Finlay — 10 points (5-4) — wins: SANADA, Oleg, EVIL, Tsuji, Yuya – losses: Oiwa, Taichi, Tana, Callum
3rd) Yota Tsuji — 10 points (5-4) — wins: SANADA, Yuya, Oiwa, Oleg, Callum – losses: EVIL, Taichi, Tana, Finlay
——Eliminated (in order of Elim)——
Yuya Uemura — 10 points (5-4) — wins: Oleg, Callum, EVIL, Tana, Oiwa – losses: Taichi, Tsuji, SANADA, Finlay
Hiroshi Tanahashi — 8 points (4-5)
Boltin Oleg — 10 points (5-4) — wins: Oiwa, Tana, SANADA, Callum, Taichi – losses: Yuya, Tsuji, Finlay, EVIL
Callum Newman — 8 points (4-5)
Ryohei Oiwa — 8 points (4-5)
SANADA — 8 points (4-5)
Taichi — 6 points (3-6)
B Block
——Qualified——
1st) Zack Sabre Jr. — 14 points (7-2) — wins: Gabe (ff), ELP, TAKE, GOK, Shingo, Drilla, YH – losses: Ren, Shota
2nd) Shota Umino — 12 points (6-3) — wins: ELP, ZSJ, Gabe (ff), YH, TAKE, GOK – losses: Drilla, Ren, Shingo
3rd) TAKESHITA — 12 points (6-3) — wins: Gabe, GOK, Shingo, Drilla, YH, Ren – losses: ELP, ZSJ, Shota
——Eliminated (in order of Elim)——
Ren Narita — 10 points (5-4) — wins: ZSJ, ELP, Gabe (ff), Shota, GOK – losses: YH, Drilla, Shingo, TAKE
Shingo Takagi — 10 points (5-4) — wins: Gabe (ff), Shota, ELP, Ren, Drilla – losses: YH, GOK, TAKE, ZSJ
GOK — 8 points (4-5)
Drilla Moloney — 8 points (4-5)
YOSHI-HASHI — 8 points (4-5)
El Phantasmo — 8 points (4-5)
Gabe Kidd — 0 points (0-1) (matches actually wrestled) — Withdrawn due to injury
———
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by EffingKENTA