Cero Reviews NJPW G1 Climax 28 - 7.14

[cero2k]

NJPW G1 Climax 28 Day 1
July 14, 2018
Tokyo, Japan

Toa Henare & Ren Narita vs Hirooki Goto & Jado - 5/10
Jado is wearing La Parka pants for some reason, what the fuck is going on with CHAOS's wardrobe? Basic match with Jado getting some legend style offense and ending with Goto pinning Narita with the GTR.

Toru Yano & YOH vs Tomohiro Ishii & SHO - 6.5/10
Screw Yano vs Ishii, can we just make this SHO vs YOH. As commentary mentioned, these guys haven't really fought each other much since they left NJPW since they were mostly tag team in Mexico and US. Big take out of this is that Ishii brought out the striker in Yano, and while we still had a lot of Yano tactics, it didn't bring the match down and actually got me interested in seeing some Yano vs Ishii. Ishii pinned YOH to win the match.

Juice Robinson & David Finlay vs Guerrillas of Destiny - 6.5/10
Good match, but nothing to it either, both teams did great. The thing to take from here is seeing how the Gun Stun is now being build as a move that comes out of nowhere and a move that once you're hit, you're not kicking out. Match saw GoD get heat on Finlay for a while, Robinson came in for a quick thing with Tama Tonga, but then Finlay came in for the out of nowhere Gun Stun for the Tongan win.

Zack Sabre Jr & TAKA Michinoku vs Kota Ibushi & Yujiro Takahashi - 7/10
Ibushi and Sabre did a lot more in this match than other build up matches. Yujiro and TAKA were only in there for the filler, but even at the end, it was Sabre taking out Yujiro with a Michinoku Driver, which makes total sense since his manager is TAKA 'Michinoku', but it's also interesting to see Sabre win matches with a move and not a submission for once.

Kenny Omega & Chase Owens vs Tetsuya Naito & SANADA - 7/10
Even though SANADA and Naito are not fighting until the later days of the tournament, SANADA has been antagonizing Naito for a while. Good match, we had big match Kenny, but the match itself ended up having a lot of comedy with SANADA and Owens doing the Nudo and asking Milano Collection about it, we got Kenny doing the overly acted spots, and Naito being Tranquilo. Finish saw Omega and Naito brawl outside while SANADA locked in the Skull End on Owens for the submission win.

G1 Climax Block A Match
YOSHI-HASHI (0) vs Togi Makabe (0) - 8/10
This match really really exceeded my expectations, I didn't expect anything at all from this pairing, but at the end, they had a great little, almost, hoss fight that made me turn on YOSHI a bit and think that he can still go, he's just a lazy ass that doesn't. This was for the most part, back and forward, where Togi built towards the King Kong Knee and YOSHI worked Makabe towards the Butterfly Lock submission. Finish saw Makabe get out of the Butterfly Lock and turning things around and dropping the King Kong Knee for the win.

G1 Climax Block A Match
Bad Luck Fale (0) w/Tanga Loa vs Hangman Page (0) - Dud.
This is the first big fight in the war between Bullet Club Firing Squad and Bullet Club Elite, and yeah, if you needed confirmation that Fale is with the other Tongans, he was wearing a T-shirt that said 'Fuck Em' with the Bullet Club logo instead of the U.

Match saw a big Fale use his size and strength to overtake Page, but Page was fast enough to get out of Fale's hands and bring the fight to him. The match was cut short when Page took out Roa and Tama Tonga came out to beat him out and give him 2 points out of it. After the beat down, Omega, Ibushi, and Owens all came out for the save. Match was going good, but it's hardly possible to call it one. If anything else, right from day 1, we now have the idea that Firing Squad are wiling to lose points in order to take out some of the Bullet Club guys.

G1 Climax Block A Match
Michael Elgin (0) vs EVIL (0) - 8.5/10
Hell of a hoss fight, two big meaty dudes clashing in the middle of the ring. Tons of shoulder tackles, striking, and tossing each other around. Early in the match, EVIL Pillmanized Elgin's arm and consequently worked over Elgin's arm, but Elgin made a comeback using the injured arm, but he was selling it. They went back and forward until the end where EVIL chased the STO, but ended with Elgin dropping EVIL with Razor's Edge and Powerbomb for the win.

G1 Climax Block A Match
Minoru Suzuki (0) vs Hiroshi Tanahashi (0) - 8.5/10
So I guess that Suzuki remix is here to stay. Suzuki started the match immediately going after Tana's leg and stretched him out for about 5 full minutes before he finally let him go and started striking. Tana made a comeback and started working over Suzuki's leg too, but Suzuki came back himself and went back for the leg. There was a strike off where Suzuki hit about 90% of the strikes, but after taking so long, Tanahashi got a Dragon Screw that really hurt Suzuki enough that allowed Tanahashi to hit the slingblade and the two High Fly Flows for the (almost at this point) upset.

Good match, but after Suzuki's offense, Tanahashi's winning sequence felt a bit underwhelming.

G1 Climax Block A Match
"Switchblade" Jay White (0) vs Kazuchika Okada (0) - 9/10
So once again we have that horrible Rainmaker remix, and we have Okada wearing balloons, no coat, red hair, and walking weird, can we finally agree that Okada is suffering of depression and needs help? Jay White too is wearing the new red attire, and now thinking that YOSHI-HASHI was wearing red too for some reason, I think White and YOSHI are doing a sigil to try and bring back Nakamura to lead the team.

Match was a really intense and stiff match, really violent, for the most part within what stablemates would put themselves through, but as the match went on and on, White started to push those limits, and eventually, he pissed off Okada. From this point on, White got aggressive with submissions, working Okada's head, and Okada started to build towards the Rainmaker.

Towards the end of the match, White kept escalating the aggressiveness until he brought out a chair. He pushed Red Shoes, and when he went for Okada, White ended up taking the chair to the face as Okada dropkicked it into him. Okada hit the piledriver and set up the Rainmaker, but as he sling-shot White, White back-fisted Red Shoes and so Okada didn't have the pin. White responded with a low blow, further cementing he is trying to become Nakamura (red attire wasn't obvious enough), White hit Okada with the chair and Switchblade for the win.

Hey, at least White said from day one that he was coming for Okada and there you go, Stablemate or not, he was coming for Okada. Lots of heat for White.

Post-match - White cut a promo saying he doesn't care what anyone thinks. White says that Okada has been making a full of himself and CHAOS since his loss at Dominion (and we can't disagree) and so this is now HIS CHAOS.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
Not the epic first show of the G1, but overall good. All tournament matches delivered one way or another.

Standings
Jay White - 2
Hiroshi Tanahashi - 2
Hangman Page - 2
Togi Makabe - 2
Micahel Elgin - 2
Kazuchika Okada - 0
Minoru Suzuki - 0
EVIL - 0
YOSHI-HASHI - 0
Bad Luck Fale - 0

[Big Red Machine]

can we finally agree that Okada is suffering of depression and needs help?

This is what the story should be, but Gedo has shown time and again that he isn't willing to have his top guys lose enough to do an angle like this, nor that he is willing to break from his usual round-robin booking patterns to try to tell a separate story with anyone involved, so I'm not hopeful.

[cero2k]

can we finally agree that Okada is suffering of depression and needs help?

This is what the story should be, but Gedo has shown time and again that he isn't willing to have his top guys lose enough to do an angle like this, nor that he is willing to break from his usual round-robin booking patterns to try to tell a separate story with anyone involved, so I'm not hopeful.

Being depressed doesn't need to translate to losses though, he's still Okada, he can be a high functioning depressed person, which would go more on par with him doing all that weird shit like the balloons and Scooby dooby doos

[Big Red Machine]

can we finally agree that Okada is suffering of depression and needs help?

This is what the story should be, but Gedo has shown time and again that he isn't willing to have his top guys lose enough to do an angle like this, nor that he is willing to break from his usual round-robin booking patterns to try to tell a separate story with anyone involved, so I'm not hopeful.

Being depressed doesn't need to translate to losses though, he's still Okada, he can be a high functioning depressed person, which would go more on par with him doing all that weird shit like the balloons and Scooby dooby doos

It doesn't have to, but this is pro wrestling. If Okada is depressed but his depression isn't causing harm to his professional career, one of his relationships,, or causing him to harm himself and/or others then it has no real consequences.

As for the Scooby Doo thing, as our resident Scooby Doo expert, I can confirm that he started doing that while he was champion, so that's not part of the angle.

[cero2k]

I think if he pushes his gimmick wacky enough for CHAOS to consider White's words that this isn't Okada's CHAOS anymore, it would work.

[Big Red Machine]

I think if he pushes his gimmick wacky enough for CHAOS to consider White's words that this isn't Okada's CHAOS anymore, it would work.

The problem with that is that White has crossed way too far to the heel side of things, so you'd basically have to turn all of them heel, with Okada fighting against them as the babyface. That being said, I think GEDO turning on Okada for Jay White in a rematch at KOPW but then mostly of the others quitting CHAOS in protest (maybe YOSHI-HASHI and Jado stay, but they are the only ones I can see staying, either because they're too goody-two-shoes or because they're too popular that turning them wouldn't work or make sense) is something that definitely could work.