Cero Reviews NJPW G1 Climax 28 - 8.10

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Cero Reviews NJPW G1 Climax 28 - 8.10

Post by cero2k » Aug 12th, '18, 21:16

NJPW G1 Climax 28, Day 17
August 10, 2018
Nippon Budokai, Tokyo, Japan

FINALLY...New Japan HAS COME BACK....TO BUDOKAN!

Tomohiro Ishii & SHO vs Toa Henare & Shota Umino - 4.5/10
Good performances by all men involved, but with nothing to build up to here, this was just Ishii kicking everyone's ass. SHO won with a deadlift german on Umino.

Guerrillas of Destiny vs Toru Yano & Gedo - 3.5/10
They did comedy with Yano and Gedo not wanting to fight either of GoD. Eventually they had to, and Gedo lost to Apeshit.

Hirooki Goto & YOH vs Juice Robinson & David Finlay - 5/10
All back and forward action, good action at that, but nothing outstanding. Goto won with the GTR over Finlay.

Tetsuya Naito & SANADA vs Zack Sabre Jr & TAKA Michinoku - 6/10
Sabre and Naito did their thing and it was great, a lot of hints of Naito getting in Sabre's head. We also had SANADA and TAKA do some comedy with TAKA cheats and SANADA's PAradise Lock. SANADA picked the win with the Skull End on TAKA. After the match, Sabre tried attacking Naito, but with no success.

The Elite vs Kota Ibushi, "The Villain" Marty Scurll, & Chase Owens - No Rating, good segment
This was a master in hype and disappointment. They all manage to have a short fight that was 100% competitive, yet never touching each other. It all build up to finally having Omega and Ibushi in the ring, but the Tongans came out and attacked them all for the no contest.

G1 Climax 28 Block A match
Togi Makabe (4) vs Michael Elgin (6) - 7.5/10
Great hoss fight, pretty much a brawl all around. The whole match can be described between strikes, lariats, and some germans. All of them stiff. Towards the end, both men finally started hitting the bigger moves and chasing their finishers. Elgin hit Makabe with a Crucifix Bomb, then went for the Elgin Bomb, but Makabe blocked it, cut off Elgin, and hit the DVB and King Kong Knee Drop for the win. Good match, may have been my favorite Makabe match.

G1 Climax 28 Block A match
YOSHI-HASHI (4) vs Hangman Page (6) - 7/10
Back and forward match, just like last match, this was to make sure that YH and Page would both end with 6 pts. Page went at it strong early on landing the SSP Shoulder Block to the outside. YOSHI quickly came back with a Headhunter, and they pretty much kept it up like this all match. Towards the end we got some big near falls when Page hit a neckbreaker from the top rope, or when YH hit a Cnadian Destroyer out of nowhere. We got some reversals out of the Rite of Passage and Karma as they chased their finishers. End of the match saw YH hit Karma for the win. Great finish.

G1 Climax 28 Block A match
Minoru Suzuki (8) vs Bad Luck Fale (6) - 6/10
Match started with a big brawl around the ring when Suzuki jumped Fale. Suzuki worked over Fale for a while, against the rails, with a chair, choking him, everything he could find. Inside the ring, Fale took control with a Samoan Drop and went for the Grenade.

Around this time, Tanga Loa came in to the match and both Tongans started to gang up on Suzuki, but he valiantly fought them off, kicking out of the big splash. Suzuki for some reason kept going for the GSP, even though Fale is twice his size, and at this point it was Tama Tonga who came out and hit the Gun Stun on Suzuki for the DQ. I liked all the action in between the brawl and Tama Tonga coming out, made Suzuki look great.

Fale ends the tournament with a record being the first man (I believe) to never get pinned or submitted in the tournament.

G1 Climax 28 Block A match
EVIL (8) vs "Switchblade" Jay White (12) - 8.5/10
Jay White needs a win here to stay alive towards the tournament's final, which unfortunately for him, EVIL played spoiler and killed the dream. Still, 12 points at his age on his first G1 is a really good record.

Match early on was the typical White match we've seen with him going for the barricade slams, he hit him with a Saito Suplex, and he suplexed him twice to the barricade, completely working the back and neck. Back inside the ring, he tried to finish things off quickly with a Bladerunner, but could, and taking advantage that the ref wasn't paying attention, low blowed EVIL, but EVIL landed a Darkness Falls to get himself some time.

EVIL starts chasing Everything is Evil, but White cuts him off. They keep trading and reversing their finishers until EVIL goes for the chair, but among the chaos, we have another ref bump, which White tries to use and hit EVIL with the chair, but EVIL cuts him off, and chair in hand, White is dropped with the STO and EVIL pins him. Good match and it had some tension because of White's G1 standing.

G1 Climax 28 Block A match
Kazuchika Okada (12) vs Hiroshi Tanahashi (14) - 9.5/10
This is it, the final two of block A and Okada NEEDS to win, a time limit draw goes to Tanahashi, so Okada is not only fighting against defeating Tanahashi, but he's fighting against time as he needs to do it within 30 minutes, something he has never been able to do. Believe it or not, this is Tanahashi's first ever Budokan single's match.

Given the story that Okada has a time limit to win, he starts off the match with everything, but Tanahashi tries to keep it slow and pace himself. Okada is working Tanahashi's leg as the clock ticks 10 minutes.

Tanahashi at this point started chasing the High Fly Flow, he managed to land a HUGE one to the outside from the top rope. Inside the ring, he goes for the Sharpshooter for a near fall, and as he goes for another HFF, Okada dodges. The clock is past 20 minutes now.

With less than 10 minutes left, Okada starts chasing the Tombstone and Rainmaker, but keeps failing to land the latter. Tanahashi keeps either reversing, getting out of, or blocking the Rainmaker attempts. Okada manages to land a Tombstone and a Rolling Rainmaker, but he can't land the good one as the clocks gets closer to 30 minutes. Tanahashi on the other hand, is hitting more and more moves, lands a Slingblade, lands a Twist and Shout, goes for a HFF that Okada countered with a Dropkick.

One minute to go. Okada goes for another Rainmaker, but Tana counters with a slap. Tanahashi lands another HFF, but Okada kicks out, and as he goes for the killer one, time runs out. Tanahashi wins the Block A of the 28th G1 Climax.

A strong win for Tanahashi, but it was against the Ballonmaker Okada, not the true Rainmaker. Okada since losing the title thinks that he needs to do all this new stuff to make the shows entertaining and keep the fans happy, not realizing that fans don't like him because he's a champion, we like him because he's great.

Post-match - Tanahashi cuts a promo and promises to win the whole thing.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
Block A closes off their tournament, this was one of their strongest shows, capped off with another great match between Okada and Tanahashi. It's usually the case that these shows are super predictable, but with only three men in contention, it felt a little more open than previous years.

Final standings for A Block:
Hiroshi Tanahashi - 15
Kazuchika Okada - 13
Jay White - 12
Minoru Suzuki - 10
EVIL - 10
Michael Elgin - 6
Bad Luck Fale - 6
Hangman Page - 6
Togi Makabe - 6
YOSHI-HASHI - 6
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