Cero Reviews NJPW G1 Climax 27, Day 14

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cero2k
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Cero Reviews NJPW G1 Climax 27, Day 14

Post by cero2k » Aug 5th, '17, 18:46

NJPW G1 Climax 27, Day 14
August 5, 2017
Osaka, Japan

Katsuya Kitamura vs Chase Owens - 4/10
What's the point of this match? Like I'm glad it's a chance of pace from the usual card, but why not give this easy win to a tournament guy? or not Chase Owens? Anyway, this was a somewhat even match, Owens started dominating, Kitamura made a comeback, the Owens got the advantage and the Package Piledriver for the win. I did like that Owens was trying soo hard to evade Kitamura's chop as much as possible. It was good for a young boy opener.

Yuji Nagata, Tetsuhiro Yagi, & Shota Umino vs Suzuki-Gun (Zack Sabre Jr, El Desperado, & Taichi) - 4.5/10
I love seeing young lions fight to start the match. The young boy parts of this match were ok, nothing special, but the Nagata vs Sabre stuff was enjoyable. Sabre was all cocky teasing the 'old man' to show him what he got, Nagata the proceeded to show him what he had. Finish was Desperado tapping out Umino with the stretch muffler. Sabre locked in his Octopus on Nagata, then mocked him as Nagata walked away.

Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Tomoyuki Oka vs Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi) - 4/10
Another match not building a match, and especially weird since Tenzan rarely does anything unless Kojima is involved. BC had heat on Oka for a while, Tenzan with the hot tag dominating mostly Yujiro. Oka made the tag, Tenzan took out Fale, Oka fought Yujiro for a bit before falling to the Pimp Juice.

Los Ingobernables de Japon (Tetsuya Naito, BUSHI, & Hiromu Takahashi) vs Togi Makabe, Tiger Mask IV, & Hirai Kawato - 6/10
The interactions between Naito and Makabe here lead me to believe it will be a Naito-shenanigan heavy match, probably the best idea since they're in Osaka. Match was better than the previous. LIJ had heat on Tiger Mask for a while, Makabe for the hot tag doing his thing with Naito, then Kawato came in to do some stuff with BUSHI and Takahashi, eventually tapping out to BUSHI's boston crab.

After the match Makabe was going to attack Naito with a chair, but no one stopped him and Naito didn't move, so he was kinda forced to actually do it and then they got pulled apart. Naito just mocked him. They brawled some more outside until BUSHI, Hiromu, and Tiger Mask pulled them apart. Naito has this amazing ability to make people look like wimps when he mocks them and they had to walk away.

CHAOS (Hirooki Goto, YOSHI-HASHI, Tomohiro Ishii) vs Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kota Ibushi, & David Finlay - 5.5/10
For some reason Tanahashi thought it was a good idea to mock Ishii by playing his stupid guitar, Ishii obviously kicked his as afterwards. Ishii/Tanahashi and YH/Ibushi did their respective thing, Goto is going against Fale, so no wonder why Fale went against Tenzan, Goto doesn't do openers.

G1 Climax 27 Block B
Tama Tonga (4) vs Toru Yano (4) - 3/10, but fun.
It's been a while since Tonga has done the full face paint, at least not since the G1 started. When Yano made his entrance, Tonga hid behind him and started stalking him down the ramp, at ring side Yano finally saw him and they started chasing each other a la Scooby Do. Tonga tied Yano's hand to the guard rail for the countout, but Yano made it inside at 19, good tease, especially after the SANADA win.

This was complete comedy, they chased each other around with the ringbell hammer, when the ref took it, Yano lowblowed Tong and rolled him up for the win. It was fun. I think Tonga got a bigger workout from this match than the ones he actually wrestles in.

G1 Climax 27 Block B
SANADA (8) vs Satoshi Kojima (0) w/Hiroyoshi Tenzan - 8/10
Holy Fuck! Kojima got a win! This match I didn't feel it kicked into gear up until the end, the first half was mostly both men getting their signature stuff in, but not going into killer mode.

Towards the end, there was a spot where SANADA has the Skull End on Kojima and they do the whole lifting arm thing, Kojima fails to react at the second count, so SANADA feeling close to finishing him decides that instead of waiting for the hulk up, he lets go and goes for the moonsault, which Kojima dodges, and this is what eventually led to Kojima making a comeback and hitting his lariat for the win. The whole finishing sequence was great and the finish itself completely unexpected. Everyone in this group is virtually eliminated, so it doesn't matter much anymore if Kojima gets wins, but I'm not sure why they felt at this point that it was worth doing it, I guess since it's not his former G1 retirement, he should go home empty handed, next year tho.

G1 Climax 27 Block B
Minoru Suzuki (8) w/El Desperado & Taichi vs Michael Elgin (4) - 7.5/10
It's not usual that Suzuki goes against such a powerhouse like Elgin. In a total chance of pace show, Suzuki-Gun didn't jump Elgin to begin the match, but Elgin does have to deal with Desperado and Taichi roaming the ring. They also didn't do the whole brawl into the crowd tease, but Suzuki did work Elgin's arms outside with a chair. Elgin probably took about 10-12 chair shots outside the ring.

Once inside the ring, Elgin was supposed to be working with no arms, but he still did a bunch of lariats and stuff, he did constantly sell that the arm was bothering him, but you have to question his wrestling approach. Suzuki's approach however, was looking for all possible arm submissions he could lock on Elgin. Finish saw Elgin drop Suzuki with a powerbomb for the win.

The match was good, but Elgin's wrestling really bothered me, Elgin has a full arsenal of slams and drops he can work with his shoulders, yet he kept going for lariats, there's nothing wrong with it, but Elgin in my opinion, ends up looking like an idiot. At least he won. Also, TONS of interference.

G1 Climax 27 Block B
Kenny Omega (10) vs Juice Robinson (2) - 8.5/10
Robinson seemed to be doing better with his leg when this match started, but then Kenny went full Team Canada and did the suplex that spills to the outside and the figure 4 on the turnbuckle, he dropped Juice's knee on a table and proceeded to work the leg.

At one point Juice countered a moonsault from Kenny by putting his knees up (yeah, I know!, but he did sell it), and Juice was able to make a comeback out of that, but I wouldn't last that long before Kenny starting V-Trigger crazy on Juice, who was able to land one or two punches and tease the Pulp Friction, but Kenny at that point was way too dominant and...wait, what the fuck. Juice just reversed the One Winged Angel and defeated Omega. What the fuck is going on with this show, now you're gonna tell me EVIL is gonna beat Okada?

G1 Climax 27 Block B
Kazuchika Okada (12) vs EVIL (8) - 9.5/10
HOLY FUCK. EVIL has defeated Okada. The streak is broken. Okada will still break Muta's title reign record, but the undefeated streak, the G1 streak, they're all now over. EVIL countered a Rainmaker and hit the EVIL for the win!

Story of the match was that from the start, EVIL had Okada figured out, and so Okada had to get serious, and so Okada started getting control of the match. Before Okada can fully control the match, EVIL resorts to weapons to cut Okada off, and from that point on, EVIL just had to seal the deal, Okada gave him hell of a fight, but at the end EVIL prevailed. There was a weird spot where they teased the countout, but EVIL himself went to pick up Okada instead of winning with a countout. Awesome match, but slightly less than the Omega match.

Post-match - EVIL cut a promo, some words for Okada, welcoming him to the Darkness World. He said he's winning G1. EVERYTHING IS EVIL! I love hearing MIlano Collection mark out at EVIL.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
What the fuck was this show, they really threw a wrench to all pick em's at this point, TONS of surprises tonight. Undercard was meh, we've reached that point where everything feels repetitive. Block matches however where good, even the Yano thing was entertaining. I'm seriously still surprised about how the last two matches ended, I really wasn't expecting this at this point. Since it hasn't happened so much, I do expect Juice and EVIL to be getting title shots at Power Struggle (sorry, not big enough for King of Pro Wrestling).
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Re: Cero Reviews NJPW G1 Climax 27, Day 14

Post by Big Red Machine » Aug 6th, '17, 01:43

I had the same thoughts as you about the booking when I first saw how things went down, but upon more thought it makes a lot of sense. Including tonight, there are only two shows left before the finals, at which point you figure Okada and Omega need to be within two points of each other for their match to matter, and your choices were either to have neither guy lose until then, which leaves you with no challengers for Okada (aside from Kenny himself, stemming from their draw) or you can have them lose some matches. Kenny's two opponents were Juice and Sanada, and having Kenny lose to Juice sets up a US Title match with an American in it that can take place in America, while Okada losing to EVIL tonight rather than Suzuki at the next show avoids going back to the Okada vs. Suzuki match that they already did this year, plus gives EVIL another chance to show his main event chops (and based on his matches tonight and at the last show, he could definitely be ready to take a step up).
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Re: Cero Reviews NJPW G1 Climax 27, Day 14

Post by cero2k » Aug 6th, '17, 11:01

the other defeat Omega has is Elgin, SANADA hasn't happened yet, so both open the possibilities to happen in American (I'm expecting ROH to plea and beg for one of those for Final Battle).

Okada really just needed one defeat since Okada/Omega IV is likely to happen at KOPW, Okada/EVIL at Power Struggle, and the rest of the year can be headlined by Tana/Ibushi and Tana/Sabre.
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Re: Cero Reviews NJPW G1 Climax 27, Day 14

Post by Big Red Machine » Aug 6th, '17, 11:48

cero2k wrote: Aug 6th, '17, 11:01 the other defeat Omega has is Elgin, SANADA hasn't happened yet, so both open the possibilities to happen in American (I'm expecting ROH to plea and beg for one of those for Final Battle).

Okada really just needed one defeat since Okada/Omega IV is likely to happen at KOPW, Okada/EVIL at Power Struggle, and the rest of the year can be headlined by Tana/Ibushi and Tana/Sabre.
I see Tanahashi vs. Zack being semi-main at KOPW.
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