Cero Reviews NJPW G1 Climax 27, Day 5

[cero2k]

NJPW G1 Climax 27, Day 5
July 23, 2017
Machida Gymnasium, Tokyo, Japan

Michael Elgin & Katsuya Kitamura vs TenCozy - 4/10
Meh match, I rather watch Elgin vs Kitamura than the other two mixed it up with them. Kitamura was babyface in peril, hot tag, Elgin ran wild and did a little exchange with Kojima to prep the match. Kitamura was pinned by Kojima after a lariato.

Suzuki-Gun (Minoru Suzuki, El Desperado, & Taichi) vs Taguchi Japan (Juice Robinson, David Finlay, & Hirai Kawato) - 5.5/10
Juice is selling the knee from yesterday's match, so most of the match tonight (and likely tomorrow) will be about targeting the leg. He took chairs to the leg, Taichi's hammer There was a submission that Suzuki had on Juice that Kawato figured it was a good idea to break up and he got killed by Suzuki. Match was 80% heat on Juice, 5% of Finlay, and at the end Kawato came in, pissed off Suzuki and got killed by Desperado for the Suzuki-Gun win. I didn't see where it came from, but Suzuki had blood on his chest. Not a great match, but it told a great story.

Post-match - Suzuki really worked Juice's leg with the last spot, so much that Juice has to be helped to the back.

Los Ingobernables de Japon (EVIL & Hiromu Takahashi) vs Bullet Club (Tama Tonga & Chase Owens) - 6/10
Takahashi doesn't have Darryl with him, he looks sad and broken, it works nicely that today they would have another match against BC, but unfortunately, Fale is not here. Once again, BC made LIJ look like babyfaces, Match was mostly worked by Owens. I didn't really feel they pushed for Tonga vs EVIL that hard, maybe I was just thinking of Darryl all the time.

CHAOS (Toru Yano & Jado) vs Bullet Club (Kenny Omega & Yujiro Takahashi) - 5/10
We got all comedy with Omega out-cheating Yano and tons of hair pulling. It was fun, and I think their match will be too.

Los Ingobernables de Japon (SANADA & BUSHI) vs CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada & Gedo) - 7/10
I think that tomorrow, regardless of the story they decide to go with, Okada and SANADA have a chance to have one of the best matches of the tournament. In this match, both teams went all out, they didn't get much time, but they made up for it for sure. The Okada/SANADA parts were awesome. BUSHI pinned Gedo with the MK to take the win.

G1 Climax 27 Block A
Zack Sabre Jr (2) vs YOSHI-HASHI (2) - 8/10
That's the YH song that I like! This had to be the best sold match in YOSHI-HASHI's career, I swear I can't remember hearing him sell like that ever. Sabre worked the arm so hard that after the match I actually wondered if something had gone wrong. The match was great and I guess I came in thinking that YH would win, so when Sabre locked in that final submission and YOSHI-HASHI tapped, I was pleasantly surprised. I'm starting to see a pattern in Sabre matches in NJPW where he is a killer submission, so most people come at him with strikes since they seem to work effectively.

G1 Climax 27 Block A
Yuji Nagata (0) vs Hiroshi Tanahashi (2) - 8/10
So Nagata is such a good sport that he decides to work Tanahashi's leg for a while and vice versa, but it was definitely Nagata that was taking the most damage since Tanahashi's legs are not that fucked up. As the match advances, Nagata finally says fuck it, and goes for the arm and the crowd goes crazy. Unfortunately for Nagata, he already lost all this time not working the arm, so the match is balanced, when it could had totally been on his favor by now. Tanahashi finished Nagata off with two consecutive High Fly Flows. At one point they did the usual slap exchange, I don't know how Tanahashi got him, but Nagata got a nasty cut on the cheek underneath the eye.

The crowd was so into Nagata that they booed Tanahashi on several occasions, they would applaud when he did something well executed, but hated when he really hurt Nagata.

G1 Climax 27 Block A
Tetsuya Naito (4) vs Bad Luck Fale (2) - 8.5/10
I'm kinda surprised this wasn't the main event, I guess they need Goto to cut his "I'll win promo" at the end. Naito may have started this match looking for revenge for what Fale did to Darryl, because he was just all over the place, and thus the match felt kinda clumsy. Soon after that Fale would gain control of the match and dominate Naito for a long while mostly working Naito's back.

This was similar to the Tanahashi/Fale match, where Naito can wrestle circles around Fale, but it only takes Fale to get a small opening and he can deal tons of damage with one single blow; in addition, Destino is a move that requries Naito to this whole convuluted spin, but when you try it on a huge guy like Fale, he simply catches you and slams you down, so Naito can't hit Destino, yet Fale CAN hit Choke Lariat Slam, which he does, and followed by a Bad Luck Fall, Naito is easy to pin 1-2-3. Good match, I liked the story it told.

G1 Climax 27 Block A
Kota Ibushi (2) vs Tomohiro Ishii (2) - 9.5/10
This was an amalgamation of an Ishii match and an Ibushi match, they would do some sequences, fast paced spots, and then proceed to slap the shit out of each other, my turn, your turn, until both of them are down. Ibushi won with the Last Ride. Go watch this match.

G1 Climax 27 Block A
Hirooki Goto (4) vs Togi Makabe (0) - 8.5/10
Good match and all, but at no point did I feel like Makabe was taking the win, so it was harder to get into the match, but the surprise of him winning at the end was quite big. This was their usual match, with tons of lariats, strikes, and big power moves. Back and forward, and really no big story other than two huge dudes clashing one another.

Post-match - Makabe cuts his "I'm gonna win the G1 Climax" promo. Fans liked it

OVERALL THOUGHTS
A really underwhelming undercard, no big angles or build ups. The tournament matches were all pretty great this time around, probably the best block show section as an average, which is saying something since none of tonight matches were per say 'must see' matches or dream matches or anything of the kind.