Cero Reviews NJPW G1 Climax 27 Finals

[cero2k]

NJPW G1 Climax 27 Finals
July 13, 2017
Ryogoku Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan

Suzuki-Gun (Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Taichi, El Desperado, Taka Michinoku) w/Miho Abe vs KUSHIDA, Jyushin 'Thunder' Liger, Tiger Mask, & Hirai Kawato - 5/10
Miho is seducing Liger until Liger started spanking her. As expected the big story in this match was the KUSHIDA vs Desperado feud, once they were done going one-on-one, everyone started getting in the ring and doing their stuff. The match actually lacked a lot of the usual Suzuki-Gun cheating. Kanemaru got the pin on Kawato. After the match, the heels kept attacking the babyfaces. KUSHIDA and Desperado brawled around the crowd, they had a huge pull apar, and they kept brawling towards the back.

Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi vs Guerrillas of Destiny - 4/10
Nagata's t-shirt is ready to be thrown in the trash bin. GoD got the upper hand on Nagata from the start and kept cutting him off for a long while. Nakanishi did one of his super slow hot tags until GoD cut him off too and after a few spots, Roa got the pin on Nakanishi. After the match, both Roa and Tonga vowed to Nagata.

CHAOS (Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI) vs Togi Makabe & David Finlay - 5/10
It was a good match, but also just there, it was all back and forward and they only thing that mattered was this thing they're doing between Goto and Makabe. YOSHI and Finlay wrestled most of the second half of the match that led to YH taking the win. Their fight was a lot more entertaining than Goto and Makabe.

Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale, Chase Owens, and Yujiro Takahashi) vs TenCozy & Juice Robinson - 4.5/10
Babyfaces started running wild, but BC were able to cut off Tenzan and work him for a while. Same deal with Kojima a few minutes later, until Juice took the hot tag, and who's leg is now completely healed. Juice ran wild on Owens and Takahashi, pinning Owens after the Pulp Friction. Ok match, but again, just an undercard with no relevance.

IWGP Jr Heavyweight Tag Team Championship Match
Funky Future vs The Young Bucks (C) - 8/10
Early in the match, Ricochet had a bad landing on his right knee doing a dive to the outside, so they kinda worked on that a bit, at the same time, the Bucks worked on Taguchi's back, both being good contenders to submit with the Sharpshooter. They worked those two things A LOT, including an awesome sharpshooter sequence that saw Ricochet almost submitting. Finish was Taguchi intercepting an Indietaker with his butt, hitting Dodon, and allowing Ricochet to hit the SSP for the win.

The match was pretty good, tons of action and the Ricochet injury was a good story that led to some nice near submissions. They sold this as a huge deals since it's the first time Taguchi captures the titles since his Apollo 55 days, we're talking 2012.

They made the Wrestle Kingdom 12 announcement. and then...suddenly....

SHIBATA!!! His first live appearance since the accident, even Liger was like WTF!? SHIBATA is walking and jumping to the ring! Crowd is going nuts. SHIBATA is not only crying, but smiling. He only said one thing, it being "I'm Alive". This will be one for the ages. I honestly was expecting Honma to make a big something in the ring tonight, but SHIBATA was a fucking delight! I've shed tears in 2 or the last 3 NJPW shows I've watched, this one left a lot of people crying in the crowd as did the Nagata match with Fale.

After the intermission, we saw a vignette of a hand with a knife, nothing more. I have to imagine it's one of the Tempura Boyz or maybe a repackaged Berreta?

IWGP Tag Team Championship Match
Bullet Club (Hangman Page & Cody) vs War Machine (C) - 6.5/10
I'm usually of the ones impressed with Hanson's agility, but tonight, some of his spots were a bit clumsy. Bullet Club had the heat for a bit on Hanson, but overall I'd say this was back and forward, mainly everything after the Rowe hot tag. I wasn't a big fan of the match, I was at the edge of the seat, but only because I hated the idea of Cody winning the tag titles.

Post-match - GoD came out to challenge for the titles. When is Lance Archer back? We REALLY need more teams. Oh! my prayers were answered! KILLER ELITE SQUAD IS BACK! KES take out both War Machine AND GoD. Davey is in amazing shape.

Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kota Ibushi, & Michael Elgin vs Suzuki-Gun (Minoru Suzuki, Zack Sabre Jr, & Takashi Iizuka) - 7.5/10
The whole gang seems to be out there with Suzuki-Gun. So it seems like they're building Elgin for the NEVER title, and Sabre as Tanahashi's first IC challenger post-G1, and so unfortunately, Ibushi had to work with Iizuka. Right from the get go the match was all chaotic with everyone brawling and interfering all over the place. SG had the heat on Ibushi for a while, Elgin with the hot tag, and eventually Tanahashi for the big tag.

This match was the proof that Suzuki-Gun should really stop doing so much interference, because all the one-on-one match-ups they did were great! Yes, even Iizuka vs Ibushi was watchable. I loved the actual finish with Sabre locking in one of his crazy octopuses, but I hated what led to that finish which was technically Elgin feeding Tanahashi to Sabre while the good guys had the upper hand.

Post-match - Suzuki and Elgin brawled, had a full pull apart. Sabre mocked Tanahashi. Ibushi was like fuck this.

Los Ingobernables de Japon vs CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada, Gedo, Toru Yano, & Tomohiro Ishii) - 8/10
Hiromu came out with a newly healed Daryl, Hiromu looked so happy. This is obviously about EVIL vs Okada, but don't be surprised if the rest of CHAOS challenge for the trios titles, seems like mostly everyone else will be somewhat busy for Power Struggle anyway.

This match had four main parts, one with Okada and EVIL, with Okada selling the neck; a babyface in peril spot with Toru Yano, which was kinda weird since he was in the nudo all the time; Ishii going wild on LIJ; and finally, just everyone going all over the place, but mostly Hiromu finishing off Gedo for the win.

Post-match - EVIL dropped Okada on a bunch of chairs and LIJ celebrated over the body of Okada. Okada sold it big.

G1 Climax 27 Finals
Tetsuya Naito vs Kenny Omega w/The Young Bucks - 9.75/10
Last year, Omega and Naito had the match of the year in the B block finals, which Omega followed with a MOTYC the very next day. Tonight Omega looks to do the same, in back to back MOTYCs. The things that Okada and Omega have done this year are magical, take those away, you may as well be looking at the match of the year.

Naito kinda injured his leg early in the match, but overall, the meat of the match was both men working on their opponent's neck. Naito started working the neck after a particularly ugly looking piledriver that Naito hit on Omega on top of an announcer table, but instead of breaking the table, they fell in the gap between the table and the guardrail, Naito had previously separated the table from the guardrail and Kenny was fairly protected, so it may had been the plan. There was another thing that looked like a botch where Naito and Omega are on the top rope, going for what looked like a superplex, but Kenny slips and brings down Naito head first into the ring post, I thought Naito was knocked out, commentary sold it as a DDT to the ringpost and they changed the spot completely, so it may had been part of the plan too.

At one point, it seemed like Omega had this won, he hit 2 V-Triggers, failed the 3rd because Naito couldn't stand, hitting the 4th, but Naito kicked out. And after countering a OWA, Naito gets his second wind and hits the first Destino, a second one as an actual OWA reversal. By the time the finish came, Kenny had hit about 8 V-Triggers, but he couldn't connect the OWA; Naito on the other hand, had already landed 3 Destinos, but Kenny kept kicking out, the 4th being the one that finally finished Kenny for the 1-2-3. This was similar to their last year's match, where Naito destroyed Omega, but Omega fought his way back to victory.

Post-match - Naito has his crowning ceremony, LIJ is out there with him. Naito is awarded the trophy, he teases breaking it. Chono gives him the G1 Climax flag of power. Chono does the LIJ fist bump! Naito cut a total babyface promo, he didn't sound like someone who was knocked out 10 minutes ago. It did seem like he's going for Tanahashi, which probably makes sense right now since EVIL and Okada have their thing right now.

There was something backstage where Ibushi tended to Omega after the loss. The build begins. Also, Suzuki-Gun attacked Funky Future backstage.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
This 20 day voyage called G1 Climax has finally come to the end, it was a hell of a ride and it capped off with a truly amazing match. The overall show may not had been the greatest thing because most matches were tag matches and easy ones at that for all the 20 man that were part of the tournament, but that aside, it was an entertaining match. I'm not gonna say go watch this show, but go watch the main event and the Shibata segment.