Cero Reviews NJPW G1 Climax 28 - 8.1

[cero2k]

NJPW G1 Climax 28, Day 12
August 1st, 2018
Kagoshima, Japan

Bad Luck Fale & Tanga Loa vs Michael Elgin & Shota Umino - 5.5/10
So apparently Elgin had a torn bicep since the Suzuki match and hid it, and now they're excusing that to losing to Okada. First thing he does, use that same arm to forearm Fale. Meat of the match was Fale and Loa working Shota, when BC tried to double team him, Elgin got involved and him and Fale brawled outside while Loa hit Apeshit on Shota for the win.

Hangman Page & Chase Owens vs Togi Makabe & Toa Henare - 4.5/10
Fucking KK won't shut up about Block C, where's Jay White fucking up the audio equipment when you need him? It almost seemed like Page and Togi were going to brawl, but after a minute they're all in the ring working on Henare. Makabe and Page did their thing, just normal brawling. Henare came in and pulled off some new offense on Page. Finish saw Page hit the Buck Shot and Rite of Passage on Henare for the win. Meh match.

YOSHI-HASHI & SHO vs "Switchblade" Jay White & YOH - 6.5/10
Well, if this time White doesn't break the pin for YOH, it be interesting to see how YOSHI reacts to that, but wait, unfortunately, YOSHI is the worst seller and has the worst facial expressions in the business. White offers to take the fall and go home quick, YH just goes no no no no no, and so White attacks him from behind for insubordination. White tags out and gets Komatsu in. I have to side with White, why hurt each other if you're fighting tomorrow for points?

Anyway, SHO and YOH had a chance to wrestle each other for about a minute, great stuff. White got in and started hurting SHO, enough for YOH to confront his own tag partner, and White audibly said, "You wanted to fight, let's fight". White pushed YOH to attack SHO, but YOH let SHO go and get face to face with White. 12 days of build up played off, but then SHO attacked White and got YOSHI in, who just went straight for YOH.

After this, SHO and White find each outside, SHO takes a hell of a bump on the rail, and when White goes for the chair, YOH saves him, but he opens up for YOSHI to lock in the Butterfly Lock. If you ask me, YOSHI-HASHI was the real piece of shit, White is making a statement, YOH is trying to save SHO, and YOSHI just keeps taking advantage of the situation and then pretends to care. YOH submitted to YOSHI with White on his face talking shit to him. Ok match, but I loved the story.

EVIL & BUSHI vs Hiroshi Tanahashi & David Finlay - 6/10
BUSHI had a mask that once he opened it, it looked like he had a dead swan on his mouth. First half of the match was LIJ working over Finlay, Tanahashi got the hot tag, and him and EVIL did their thing. The end was BUSHI keeping Tanahashi busy outside, while EVIL hit the STO on Finlay for the win. Good match.

Minoru Suzuki & El Desperado vs Kazuchika Okada & Gedo - 6.5/10
Suzuki-Gun got the jump on Okada and Gedo, Suzuki took out Okada for enough time that they were able to work on Gedo for a while. Once Okada made it back, him and Suzuki got at it, and Suzuki got the upper hand on most of the exchange. They tagged out their partners, and Despy and Gedo started trading roll ups. Suzuki reversed a Rainmaker into the sleeper and he made him watch as Desperado pinned Gedo after Pinche Loco. Good match, Gedo was pretty good here.

Post-match - Suzuki went for the GSP, but the Young Lions stop him, so Suzuki hits it on Uemura. Okada got his ass kicked tonight.

G1 Climax 28 Block B Match
Tama Tonga (2) w/Tanga Loa vs Tomohiro Ishii (4) - 7/10
Ishii came aware of Loa's presence, so Tonga started the match trying to sneak out a Gun Stun, but to no avail. They had some great action early on, with the quickness of Tama Tonga. At one point, Ishii to tired of Loa and brought him in to the match, kicked his ass, and took him out, but the distraction allowed Tama Tonga to recover enough to hit his old DDT finisher. Ishii reversed some more moves, and during a ref bump, Loa came in and bent a chair on Ishii's back. GoD went for Guerrilla Warfare, but Ishii fought back and took both of them out, and fuck it, Ishii broke the chair on Tonga's back.

Tama Tonga hit a Tongan Twist on a chair for a near fall. Ishii blocked a Gun Stun and hit a lariat for a near fall. Sliding Lariat for another near fall, but this time it was Loa that pulled the ref. Ishii took out Loa, and this brought out Fale, who hit the Grenade on Ishii. Fale put the dead Tonga on top of Ishii, but Ishii still kicked out. Finish was finally Ishii reversing a Gun Stun into a Brainbuster reversed into a Gun Stun for the clean win for Tama Tonga. Pretty action packed match, but this was unfortunately one of those that I really wanted to see clean.

Post-match - Tama Tonga kept talking shit to Roman Reigns.

G1 Climax 28 Block B Match
SANADA (6) vs Juice Robinson (2) - 8.5/10
They started the match showing off some chain wrestling going to a stand still with dropkicks, SANADA really looking miles away. The match continued with Juice trying to copy SANADA's offense and trying to execute finishers outside the ring, not paying attention to the ref who got to 19.

SANADA started working on Juice's arm at this point, he kept the heat on for a while. Juice in return, would come back with some power moves and slams. Juice made a full comeback, and to continue stealing SANADA's moves, Juice locked in teh Skull End and went for the Moonsault, but failed miserably. SANADA is dominant at this point. Finish saw Juice finally decide to take off his hand casket and go for the now legal punch, they traded off a bunch of Skull End and Pulp Friction set ups, and finally, Juice landed the closed-fist punch, hit Pulp Friction, and won. Really good match, SANADA looked amazing, even in defeat.

A good development to Juice losing all his G1 matches, showing that the cast has really been affecting his matches and the two matches he took it off, he won.

G1 Climax 28 Block B Match
Tetsuya Naito (8) vs Toru Yano (2) - 7/10
Yano rushed to the match, brought a chair, got ready, and meanwhile, Naito didn't hurry to take off his entrance attire. Yano was getting annoyed and impatient. Funny stuff.

Match saw a lot of comedy of Yano trying to pull off his shtick on Naito, and Naito easily and seamingless turning it against Yano. At one point, Naito tied Yano's hand to the rail for a close count out when Yano had to drag the whole rail block to the ring.

Eventually the tricks started working for Yano and he made a comeback, and he starts doing more proper wrestling coming close to take out Naito. There was a weird ref bump that led to nothing, and as the ref came back, Naito hit Destino for the clean win. Fun match.

G1 Climax 28 Block B Match
Zack Sabre Jr (6) w/TAKA Michinoku vs Kenny Omega (10) - 9.5/10
If Sabre had beaten Omega here, he'd have arguably the best win resume for a year in NJPW.

Story of the match was that Sabre had an answer to every signature move of Omega, and even though at first Omega kept his own with Sabre in the match, as the match went on, Sabre just excelled and forced Omega to reach in for super powers and slowly start to hurt Sabre enough. Sabre in addition, worked over Omega's knee, which commentary sold it as working on the real life ankle injury. Omega on the other hand, had to rely on V-Triggers since they're harder to counter into submission.

Towards the end, Sabre locked in a Figure 4 Leg Lock on one leg, and the other on a Stretch Muffler, and then transitioned all of it into a Calf Slicer. Finish finally came after some V-Triggers, but Kenny could only follow with La Magistral for the win. Omega was never able to hit the One Winged Angel. I think these two will clash again. Awesome match.

G1 Climax 28 Block B Match
Kota Ibushi (8) vs Hirooki Goto (6) - 9/10
This is Ibushi's hometown. Match was pretty great, it was really similar to Ibushi vs Ishii, but a lot less hard hitting, a lot less strikes, and more grapple moves, but regardless, it had the same Strong Style feel to it.

Match was hard hitting action packed from the start, and they never paced it down. Back and forward, they started the match going with mostly strikes and trying to get some strong offense in like Ibushi's Golden Triangle Moonsault. There were some counters, but overall it felt like they were limited and all moves landed. Towards the end, Goto hits Shouten Kai for a near fall, Ibushi chases the Kami Goye, and after a Straightjacket German and a Last Ride, he finally hits it for the win.


Post-match - Short promo by Kota, says that he's happy to be back home and that the next time he returns, he'll come back G1 Climax Champion.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
Another awesome Block B show in the books, the all the tournament matches were good, or at least worth watching, and that one Jay White tag match in the undercard had a great story that will most likely develop into something. Talking G1 shows, this could be one I'd recommend top to bottom, which is not the case with a lot of them.


A BLOCK STANDINGS
Jay White - 8
Hiroshi Tanahashi - 10
Hangman Page - 2
Togi Makabe - 4
Michael Elgin - 4
Kazuchika Okada - 8
Minoru Suzuki - 8
EVIL - 8
YOSHI-HASHI - 2
Bad Luck Fale - 6

B BLOCK STANDINGS
Kenny Omega 12
Kota Ibushi 8
Hirooki Goto 4
Tama Tonga 4
Tomohiro Ishii 4
Tetsuya Naito 10
Zack Sabre Jr. 6
SANADA 6
Juice Robinson 4
Toru Yano 2

[Big Red Machine]

Post-match - Tama Tonga kept talking shit to Roman Reigns.

Does he realize that he's supposed to be a heel?

[cero2k]

Post-match - Tama Tonga kept talking shit to Roman Reigns.

Does he realize that he's supposed to be a heel?

i think at this point he's just antagonizing everyone with the hopes that something sticks

[Big Red Machine]

Post-match - Tama Tonga kept talking shit to Roman Reigns.

Does he realize that he's supposed to be a heel?

i think at this point he's just antagonizing everyone with the hopes that something sticks

This whole Firing Squad thing feels like it's going to wind up being quite the dumpster fire, but one that ultimately doesn't matter because the Tongans were marginal players before this, too.

[cero2k]

This whole Firing Squad thing feels like it's going to wind up being quite the dumpster fire, but one that ultimately doesn't matter because the Tongans were marginal players before this, too.

I think it has potential still, they already established them as a certain type of heel, and they really just need to get out of the G1 season to establish the feud. I think it's gonna hurt them trying to feud with the BC while Omega is champion since that means loses and it means that other people want part of Omega, but as they transition BC as a babyface entity, FS can take their place as heel gaijin team.

[Big Red Machine]

This whole Firing Squad thing feels like it's going to wind up being quite the dumpster fire, but one that ultimately doesn't matter because the Tongans were marginal players before this, too.

I think it has potential still, they already established them as a certain type of heel, and they really just need to get out of the G1 season to establish the feud. I think it's gonna hurt them trying to feud with the BC while Omega is champion since that means loses and it means that other people want part of Omega, but as they transition BC as a babyface entity, FS can take their place as heel gaijin team.

The more I think about it, the more the booking of them in G1 has totally killed them for me. Gedo has booked them to be exactly what you said: a replacement gaijin heel unit for their previous gaijin heel unit which got too popular and had to turn babyface. But in doing that he has killed off the thing that makes the Firing Squad feel like more than a bunch of generic heel midcarders: their feud with Bullet Club.
Running in for the intentional DQ on Page and Omega was good in a vacuum, and I liked them beating Okada via interference because it did help them feel important and furthered the story of Okada having a bad start to his G1 (though if I were booking I would have had it be the Gun Stun that put Okada down instead of the Bad Luck Fall to help get Tama Tonga over), but all of the other interferences and especially the other "we don't care if we get DQed" finishes made the ones on Page and Omega (i.e. people they have actual bad blood with) feel less important. They went from an expression of hatred to just "that thing Firing Squad" does. The only guys they should have done that on were Omega, Page, and Ibushi.
Instead they should have been using G1 to build them (and especially Tama Tonga) up. I definitely would have left the NEVER belt on Elgin both so A Block could have a title (it really does make the matches for some of the guys who are already mathematically eliminated feel really pointless without even the hope of beating a champion) and to free Goto up to lose to Tama Tonga, have Tonga also get the win over Naito... make him feel like a force to be reckoned with and make it look like he had a good shot to win the block if he didn't get DQed against Omega and Ibushi... like his hatred for them them possibly cost him a chance at winning the G1, and use that to add fuel to the fire going forward.

They've got three Destruction shows, so Omega could defend the belt on one of them and work a grudge match against Tama Tonga or something on another (and Guerrillas vs. Golden Lovers on the other?), which you could use to have Tama Tonga beat him via cheating to set up a title match down the line. Maybe Omega defends against someone else at KOPW and gets attacked afterwards and stuff is done on the ROH tour to establish that interference is a problem and then build to a cage match at Power Struggle?

[cero2k]

The more I think about it, the more the booking of them in G1 has totally killed them for me. Gedo has booked them to be exactly what you said: a replacement gaijin heel unit for their previous gaijin heel unit which got too popular and had to turn babyface. But in doing that he has killed off the thing that makes the Firing Squad feel like more than a bunch of generic heel midcarders: their feud with Bullet Club.
Running in for the intentional DQ on Page and Omega was good in a vacuum, and I liked them beating Okada via interference because it did help them feel important and furthered the story of Okada having a bad start to his G1 (though if I were booking I would have had it be the Gun Stun that put Okada down instead of the Bad Luck Fall to help get Tama Tonga over), but all of the other interferences and especially the other "we don't care if we get DQed" finishes made the ones on Page and Omega (i.e. people they have actual bad blood with) feel less important. They went from an expression of hatred to just "that thing Firing Squad" does. The only guys they should have done that on were Omega, Page, and Ibushi.
Instead they should have been using G1 to build them (and especially Tama Tonga) up. I definitely would have left the NEVER belt on Elgin both so A Block could have a title (it really does make the matches for some of the guys who are already mathematically eliminated feel really pointless without even the hope of beating a champion) and to free Goto up to lose to Tama Tonga, have Tonga also get the win over Naito... make him feel like a force to be reckoned with and make it look like he had a good shot to win the block if he didn't get DQed against Omega and Ibushi... like his hatred for them them possibly cost him a chance at winning the G1, and use that to add fuel to the fire going forward.

They've got three Destruction shows, so Omega could defend the belt on one of them and work a grudge match against Tama Tonga or something on another (and Guerrillas vs. Golden Lovers on the other?), which you could use to have Tama Tonga beat him via cheating to set up a title match down the line. Maybe Omega defends against someone else at KOPW and gets attacked afterwards and stuff is done on the ROH tour to establish that interference is a problem and then build to a cage match at Power Struggle?

I don't disagree, the problem that I see is that they half assed both stories, and that is because they ran it during the G1 when at the end, you do need an Okada/Naito/Omega/Ibushi winning since this builds towards WK. I don't mind that FS attacks everyone, it does make the attacks on Omega and Page blend with the rest, but those were also post-match attacks, so still somewhat different, but I think they had to go all or nothing for the rest of the booking. Tama Tonga SHOULD had either cheated himself into the block finals, or gone with zero points but injuring more people or something. I think Tama Tonga should be messing with Kenny during some of his matches, but that would really hurt the tournament. I think it's a good story, just really really hard to tell during a G1 when your outcomes are bigger than BC vs FS.

Likewise, I think Fale is the one that should had been left to build up as the unstoppable machine with clean wins on his block since we already had Jay White doing the cheating, and let Tanahashi and idk, EVIL be the ones to stop him from making the finals. FS doesn't have numbers, so build up two 'aces', and totally agree on the NEVER title, let Fale chase that one and Tama chase the IC once Jericho gives it back to Naito.

If I had the powers to book. I would had left Tama Tonga and Fale out of the tournament, let them cut a promo saying they don't care about the G1 and once it starts, have them attack the BC on every ROH show in the US, make it so that Kenny and co can't just leave the G1 while FS is taking everyone out in the US. Make me pay attention to ROH, make it seem like when Goku is recovering while Freeza is kicking everyone's ass. Use those G1 spots for the Kento Miyahara spot that everyone wanted, bring in heel Nakajima, or Kenoh, or Cobb, or someone from ROH, it doesn't matter since Fale and Tonga have only played filler anyway.

[Big Red Machine]

The more I think about it, the more the booking of them in G1 has totally killed them for me. Gedo has booked them to be exactly what you said: a replacement gaijin heel unit for their previous gaijin heel unit which got too popular and had to turn babyface. But in doing that he has killed off the thing that makes the Firing Squad feel like more than a bunch of generic heel midcarders: their feud with Bullet Club.
Running in for the intentional DQ on Page and Omega was good in a vacuum, and I liked them beating Okada via interference because it did help them feel important and furthered the story of Okada having a bad start to his G1 (though if I were booking I would have had it be the Gun Stun that put Okada down instead of the Bad Luck Fall to help get Tama Tonga over), but all of the other interferences and especially the other "we don't care if we get DQed" finishes made the ones on Page and Omega (i.e. people they have actual bad blood with) feel less important. They went from an expression of hatred to just "that thing Firing Squad" does. The only guys they should have done that on were Omega, Page, and Ibushi.
Instead they should have been using G1 to build them (and especially Tama Tonga) up. I definitely would have left the NEVER belt on Elgin both so A Block could have a title (it really does make the matches for some of the guys who are already mathematically eliminated feel really pointless without even the hope of beating a champion) and to free Goto up to lose to Tama Tonga, have Tonga also get the win over Naito... make him feel like a force to be reckoned with and make it look like he had a good shot to win the block if he didn't get DQed against Omega and Ibushi... like his hatred for them them possibly cost him a chance at winning the G1, and use that to add fuel to the fire going forward.

They've got three Destruction shows, so Omega could defend the belt on one of them and work a grudge match against Tama Tonga or something on another (and Guerrillas vs. Golden Lovers on the other?), which you could use to have Tama Tonga beat him via cheating to set up a title match down the line. Maybe Omega defends against someone else at KOPW and gets attacked afterwards and stuff is done on the ROH tour to establish that interference is a problem and then build to a cage match at Power Struggle?

I don't disagree, the problem that I see is that they half assed both stories, and that is because they ran it during the G1 when at the end, you do need an Okada/Naito/Omega/Ibushi winning since this builds towards WK. I don't mind that FS attacks everyone, it does make the attacks on Omega and Page blend with the rest, but those were also post-match attacks, so still somewhat different, but I think they had to go all or nothing for the rest of the booking. Tama Tonga SHOULD had either cheated himself into the block finals, or gone with zero points but injuring more people or something. I think Tama Tonga should be messing with Kenny during some of his matches, but that would really hurt the tournament. I think it's a good story, just really really hard to tell during a G1 when your outcomes are bigger than BC vs FS.

Those were only "post-match" attacks because the attack caused a DQ. EVIL and Elgin were post-match attacks as well.
What I'm saying is that if Gedo was a better booker, he would have found a way to use these guys in the G1 in a way that doesn't half-ass the stories. One idea that leaps out at me would be to have Kenny and Tama Tonga in separate blocks, and have Fale do the intentional DQ with Kenny in a clear attempt to maim him. I don't think Tama Tonga distracting Kenny during a match or two would have been anywhere near as problematic if they weren't doing so much bullsh*t in all of the other matches. It does run into the problem of setting up a challenger who you might not want to set up that way, but if it's really a problem you could just send Kenny and the guy to ROH/CMLL/RevPro/MCW to do that title match because none of those promotions will turn down any date on Kenny (maybe you could argue it doens't set up a challenger if you have Kenny lose by count-out, although even in that case I'd like some follow-up where the guy demands a match against Kenny and the company makes it non-title and Kenny wins, which would both put the issue to bed and make some of Kenny's non-title defense matches over the next few months actually mean something).

Likewise, I think Fale is the one that should had been left to build up as the unstoppable machine with clean wins on his block since we already had Jay White doing the cheating, and let Tanahashi and idk, EVIL be the ones to stop him from making the finals. FS doesn't have numbers, so build up two 'aces', and totally agree on the NEVER title, let Fale chase that one and Tama chase the IC once Jericho gives it back to Naito.

I'd focus more on Tama Tonga because Fale already got that treatment back in 2015 and it proved he couldn't quite hang at that level. I also think he needs less build because his size gives him that sort of Kane/Big Show/Mark Henry instant credibility where you really don't need to do too much to build up to a world title challenger level/a dangerous force of evil and have people buy it. Tama Tonga should be the FS "ace." He's the best worker of the three and the one who it feels like is the centerpiece of the group.

If I had the powers to book. I would had left Tama Tonga and Fale out of the tournament, let them cut a promo saying they don't care about the G1 and once it starts, have them attack the BC on every ROH show in the US, make it so that Kenny and co can't just leave the G1 while FS is taking everyone out in the US. Make me pay attention to ROH, make it seem like when Goku is recovering while Freeza is kicking everyone's ass. Use those G1 spots for the Kento Miyahara spot that everyone wanted, bring in heel Nakajima, or Kenoh, or Cobb, or someone from ROH, it doesn't matter since Fale and Tonga have only played filler anyway.

That's a fantastic idea, but the problem with it is that ROH barely runs during the G1. It's something that would have worked better if maybe Page wasn't in the G1 and/or Cody wasn't going away doing a TV show... though then again you do still have Marty and the Bucks hanging around not doing anything, and you can even send Yujiro to ROH if they feel they need the space. Bucks vs. Guerrillas of Destiny for the tag belts feels like a natural match to do, and a non-title win in ROH sets it up perfectly. It's definitely one of those areas that if Delirious and Gedo had sat down together to plan this out further ahead of time, they probably could have pulled it off pretty well.