Cero Reviews NJPW G1 Climax 27, Day 3

[cero2k]

NJPW G1 Climax 27, Day 3
July 21, 2017
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan

Los Ingobernables de Japon (EVIL & Hiromu Takahashi) vs Taguchi Japan (Juice Robinson & David Finlay) - 6/10
Most of the match was Takahashi vs FInlay until the hot tag when Juice and EVIL went at it for a few minutes before Finlay would make his way back into the ring. Takahashi would take out Robinson outside while EVIL locked in his submission for the win. Good opener, obviously to build Robinson vs EVIL. After the match EVIL locked in his submission on Robinson too making him tap.

Los Ingobernables de Japon (SANADA & BUSHI) vs Suzuki-Gun (Minoru Suzuki & Taichi) w/El Desperado - 7.5/10
BUSHI's outer mask is a terminator themed one, it's awesome. SANADA's new t-shirt is BUSHI hitting him with the Red Mist, weird to make a t-shirt from that. The anticipation to sing Kaze ni Nare is big.

Suzuki jumped SANADA during the intros, as usual, they take their opponents to the very back and brawl around the crowd. Suzuki really did it this time, he poured water on SANADA and fucked up his mohawk! SANADA does look awesome going toe-to-toe with someone like Suzuki; SANADA is gonna be a superstar after this G1. Back in the ring, Taichi is trying to tear BUSHI's mask off and BUSHI is choking Taichi with his t-shirt.

Once both teams made it back in the ring, SANADA straight up whipped Taichi to his corner and calls out Suzuki, that's the kind of stuff that makes you look tough. Their fight saw SANADA be faster and stronger, but Suzuki's experience was overwhelming and he kept countering SANADA into some submission. Finish saw Desperado distract BUSHI enough for Taichi to hit him with the mic and roll him up, SANADA and Suzuki were still brawling on the outside. It's gonna be a hell of a fight between these two.

Post-match - Taichi ripped BUSHI's mask off, put it on and mocked him. BUSHI even tried to fight him wearing a towel on his head, but to no success.

Bullet Club (Kenny Omega & Yujiro Takahashi) vs Bullet Club (Chase Owens & Tama Tonga) - 6.5/10
I expect many shenanigans in this match. Yujiro and Tonga start the match by hugging and Tiger Hattori gets pissed and tells them to stop. While Owens and Omega are 'sparring', Owens accidentally targets the injured knee from yesterday, Omega gets pissed and tells Owens to get the fuck out, Tonga comes in and he knows that it's a weakness he can use tomorrow, so they start targeting the knee, Owens doesn't want to, but Tonga is in command. Eventually Owens will be drunk in the power that beating your boss gives you.

This ended up being a really competitive match with a good story to it. Yujiro pinned Owens at the end. They all celebrated together at the end, but Omega was pissed with Tonga that he risked injuring the knee. There will be some fire in their match.

TenCozy & Michael Elgin vs CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada, Gedo, & Toru Yano) - 6/10
CHAOS is working heel this match, if Yano is gonna cheat anyway, you may as well join him. They got the heat on Kojima for a while, keeping Tenzan and Elgin at bay. Eventually Okada and Elgin go the tags and Elgin actually got the upper hand on the champion for a while, but Okada does come back. Finish saw Tenzan tap Gedo out.

Good match, but nothing special, it didn't even get me excited about Okada/Elgin, but if you ask me, Elgin is defeating Okada in their G1 match and gets his big title shot before the year ends, probably in one of the lesser shows. Okada was being a dick to Elgin after the match.

G1 Climax 27 Block A
Hirooki Goto (2) vs Yuji Nagata (0) - 7/10
Maybe it was me, but I thought it was a bit of a boring match until Goto started slapping Nagata on the head and the old timer got mad. Maybe there IS a theme about disrespecting this old man and telling him to stop trying to play with the big boys, and that's the only way to get him to bring it, maybe he said something in the press conference that pissed off CHAOS. They had a pretty decent second half of a match, fans were totally into the match and Nagata, who unfortunately, couldn't get the win. Finishing sequence was really heated.

G1 Climax 27 Block A
Togi Makabe (0) vs Tomohiro Ishii (0) - 6.5/10
This was your quintessential Ishii vs Makabe match, except with a little bit more brawling on the outside. So many lariats you'd think we're on a Stan Hansen Tirbute show. Crowd was mostly behind Makabe, who actually felt a lot more dominant than Ishii, even if at the end Ishii won. I just couldn't get into this match.

G1 Climax 27 Block A
Zack Sabre Jr. (2) vs Kota Ibushi (0) - 9/10
This is it! The match that not even WWE could give me! And while it could had been so much better, it was still a great match. Sabre worked the whole match dismantling Ibushi, he targeted the neck and the legs most, he targeted the arms, but to a lesser extent. Ibushi in return was mostly all kicks and strikes, he didn't hit most of his big spots. Some great near falls and close submissions. Finish saw Ibushi reverse Sabre into the powerbomb for the win.

G1 Climax 27 Block A
Bad Luck Fale (2) vs Hiroshi Tanahashi (0) - 8.5/10
See!? ring announcer learned to not get in Fale's way! This was a good match with an awesome story, Tanahashi is injured, so he is working carefully so he doesn't need to use his arm as much, he's taking care of it, he's moving a lot and is happy and optimistic, but it only takes for Fale to grab you ONE time before your whole plan is fucked, and thus Fale gets a hold of him and Tanahashi's whole game plan is fucked and now he really needs to dig deep to win this match.

Tanahashi would pull all stops working with only one arm, he even skinned the cat with one arm. Towards the end of the match you can see Tanahashi having some good momentum going, but he can't put Fale down, and every time he comes close to him, he risks getting destroyed with one move, so the battle spills to the outside and Tanahashi finally hurts Fale with a High Fly Flow from the top rope to the floor. They tease an awesome double countout, but they make it to the apron at 17ish, and suddenly Tanahashi hits a slingblade and drops Fale to the floor, the count continues, Tanahashi makes it in, but Fale fails to do so and thus loses the match. Perfect finish because Fale wasn't injured enough to be put down, but enough to not make the count. It also opens the door to make the rest of the countout teases credible.

G1 Climax 27 Block A
Tetsuya Naito (2) vs YOSHI-HASHI (2) - 8/10
The battle of the ugly hair. This match was one third of Naito controlling YOSHI-HASHI a lot; later on, YOSHI-HASHI got the offense on Naito, working the back and coming really close to submitting him; at the end, it was all back and forward, a bit of a race for each man to hit their finisher. This really felt like an all Naito match, there was a small part were I wondered if YOSHI-HASHI could steal the match, but that hope went out quick enough and I just started waiting to see how much YOSHI-HASHI could get in before Naito would finally hit the Destino. Don't get me wrong, YOSHI-HASHI was great and this was an awesome performance, but Naito is just in a whole other level.

The match was great, but underwhelming for the main event, especially following Sabre/Ibushi and Tanahashi/Fale (understandable, you don't want to end a show with a countout win).

Post-match - The rest of the Ingobernables join him at the ring. Naito cut what sounded like a great babyface promo.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
A good show for New Japan, but aside from Sabre/Ibushi and Tanahashi/Fale, I wouldn't run out to watch it. From the undercard, the Suzuki/SANADA stuff was awesome, and the Omega/Tonga stuff was good, both leading to a lot of interest in tomorrow's show.

[Big Red Machine]

I liked the first two matches a lot more than you, and you liked Tanahashi vs. Fale a lot more than me, LOL.

[cero2k]

I liked the first two matches a lot more than you, and you liked Tanahashi vs. Fale a lot more than me, LOL.

Oh that was a type-o on the SANADA match, i was raving about it in the conclusion, i liked it a lot more

[Big Red Machine]

I liked the first two matches a lot more than you, and you liked Tanahashi vs. Fale a lot more than me, LOL.

Oh that was a type-o on the SANADA match, i was raving about it in the conclusion, i liked it a lot more

When I said "first two matches" I mean the G1 stuff. I've seen the opener, but that's it. I'm going to try to finish the undercards for days 2, 3, and 4 today.

[cero2k]

When I said "first two matches" I mean the G1 stuff. I've seen the opener, but that's it. I'm going to try to finish the undercards for days 2, 3, and 4 today.

ohh ok, haha, so you liked an Ishii match more than I did, that may be a first. I'm not sure if it was the undercard blues or what, I just couldn't get into it.