Cero Reviews NJPW G1 Climax 27, Day 4

[cero2k]

NJPW G1 Climax 27, Day 4
July 22, 2017
Karouken Hall, Tokyo, Japan

David Finlay, Kota Ibushi, & Togi Makabe vs Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii, & Gedo - 6.5/10
Ishii and Ibushi start the match, good exchange that makes me feel that their match could be awesome if Ishii works the Ibushi style, I think Ibushi could bring out the best in Ishii, BUT if Ibushi does the Ishii match, it will be great, but it will be just tons of strikes and my turn, your turn spots. Match was really just to build Makabe and Goto getting in the ring together to tease their match, quickly enough Finlay and Gedo were alone in the ring to finish the match up with Finlay pinning Gedo. After the match Makabe got pulled apart from Goto outside the ring, while Ishii and Ibushi faced off inside the ring. Good opener, straight to the point.

Suzuki-Gun (Zack Sabre Jr & El Desperado) vs CHAOS (YOSHI-HASHI & Jado) - 6/10
Yesterday's YOSHI-HASHI song was soo much better, not sure why we didn't get it today (or other days). Match was ok, Suzuki-Gun had the heat on Jado for a while until YOSHI-HASHI got the hot tag, fought Sabre for a bit, they did some other things between the four, and the for the finish, which was interesting. Sabre puts YOSHI-HASHI in the octopus hold and tells Desperado to finish Jado, which he does with the Guitarra de Angel, and YH just looked on and didn't even try to do shit about it. It's like YH didn't even want to work tonight, he was there all shitty, going through the motions.

Yuji Nagata & Tomoyuki Oka vs Hiroshi Tanahashi & Katsuya Kitamura - 7/10
Dang, good for Oka and Kitamura getting on the third match of the show, this could totally had been Finlay and Tenzan or whatever, but they gave the young lions the spot. Tanahashi and Nagata start the match, good stuff, they tag Oka and Kitamura who start it off slowly. Nagata and Oka get the heat on Kitamura for a bit, including the awesome Oka/Kitamura spot they've been doing where you just see two tractors crashing at each other over and over again. In the hot tag, Tanahashi had the upper hand.

Biggest spot I think was Nagata locking in the armbar on Tanahashi's injured arm (prepping for tomorrow) and Kitamura breaking it up (people hate it), and then Tanahashi dropping Nagata with the Dragon Screw (likely what he is working tomorrow). Another awesome spot was both Oka and Kitamura beating up Tanahashi and Nagata respectively at the same time. Nagata pinned Kitamura. I really enjoyed this match. Tana and Nagata's face off after the match was well hearted, Nagata offered a hand shake, Tana refused, but Nagata made a face of 'I understand'.

Los Ingobernables de Japon (Tetsuya Naito, BUSHI, & Hiromu Takahashi) vs Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale, Chase Owens, and Yujiro Takahashi) - 7/10
There is no single reference to it in kayfabe, but I'm really excited about Yujiro vs Hiromu.

Oh My God. I...I uhh. Fale just killed Darryl like Sentry killed Ares, ripping him in two with all the insides flying off. This was the most disgusting thing I've seen in wrestling since the decapitation of Dragon Dragon. The whole crowd seriously wanted to see Hiromu go berserk.

Match itself was a lot of back and forward, tons of tags. Bullet Club really made LIJ look like babyfaces in this match, and not just because of the Darryl thing, but the overall wrestling. After the match Naito taunted Fale, but Fale just walked away. Hiromu was devastated about Darryl afterwards, he didn't even fist bump Naito, he just walked away not even waiting for his hand to be raised. It's something stupid, but I'm glad he sold it. I loved the heat this match got.

G1 Climax 27 Block B
Toru Yano (0) vs Satoshi Kojima (0) w/Hiroyoshi Tenzan - 6.5/10
I think we can consider this a spot fest, it was literally just both of them getting their shit in. There was a small story of Yano doing his shtick and Tenzan and Kojima catching him, but he would always eventually do it anyway. OK match for them. Yano rolled up Kojima for the win after a low blow. If was fun if you like the Yano stuff.

G1 Climax 27 Block B
Juice Robinson (2) vs EVIL (0) - 6.5/10
Not sure if someone else got this, but even though the match was back and forward, it really showed how Juice is on a lower totem spot than EVIL, the whole match felt like Juice had to try much harder to get the upper hand and at the end he couldn't even beat EVIL. The match was slow for the most part, tons of selling, at least until the finishing sequence when EVIL and Juice started racing to hit their big moves. At one point Juice hit Honma's Kokeshi, fans popped, Makabe was on commentary, I'd love to know what he said.

G1 Climax 27 Block B
Minoru Suzuki (0) w/El Desperado vs SANADA (2) - 8/10
I loved this match, if there was ever a test to see if SANADA can get the crowd behind him, this was it, he was a total babyface tonight. Match started with Suzuki (and Desperado) beating the shit out of SANADA for a while, inside and outside the ring, chair shots and all. Once inside the ring, SANADA would eventually make a great comeback, he played around with the story that last time he tried to tie Suzuki in the knot, Suzuki reversed it into an armbar, so in this match

Tama Tonga (2) w/Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens vs Kenny Omega (2) w/Yujiro Takahashi - 9/10
Man, Tonga looks like a million bucks tonight, and not of the young kind. Tonga straight up jumped Okada during introductions. At one point Tonga took the mic and talked trash to Kenny wanting to lead the Bullet Club, so if he wanted to lead the Bullet Club, he needed to focus on BC and not The Elite, not the Superkliq.

Match was really fast paced, but a lot of delivered hits, but just tons of running and dodging. Back and forward, and I was surprised that Tonga didn't work as much on the knee as he did, I think I was expecting Sabre/Tanahashi levels of working the limb, but that's really not Tonga's style, so I don't know why I even expected it. Finish saw Omega hit the OWA for the wing. The match itself may had been a lesser rating, but the overbearing story of Tonga challenging Omega's leader cred really brought it up for me.

Post-match - Kenny confronts Tonga over his comments, without saying anything, it's kinda like "Don't talk shit about my leadership if you can't even beat me". Kenny brings everyone together for the Too Sweet, Tonga almost doesn't go for it, but at the end he does and him and Kenny hug.

During this match, Tonga displayed some disdain against both Kenny and The Elite. I know tons of these things never translate outside of the G1 and are just to build the individual matches, but coming from Kenny, I totally believe that this is all part of the Kenny vs Cody feud for Bullet Club's leadership spot and the consequent babyface turn of Omega and The Bucks.

Kazuchika Okada (2) w/Gedo vs Michael Elgin (0) - 9.5/10
Well, someone is energetic tonight, Okada went all Ultimate Warrior on the guardrail. All year Okada has been fighting many different type of people, we've seen speed, technicians, strikes, Suzuki, but no one that is straight up strong, I know you'll ask, what about Fale? sure, Fale is strong, but he's not Michael Elgin strong. The story of the match is just that, Elgin is so freaking strong and Okada is being overwhelmed in everything he tries, there was nothing that Okada could do that Elgin couldn't just pick him up and slam him down.

As the match progressed, my prediction that Elgin had Okada's number was starting to come true, it really seemed like Elgin was walking out with the W and that Okada wouldn't even get to hit the Rainmaker, Elgin was slamming him down over and over, lariat after lariat, but he just couldn't pin him down for the 3 count, he kept kicking out literally at 2.99. The match goes on and on like this and Elgin starts to lose control after not being to finish Okada, and so the champ starts to connect more often until he finally hits his heavy moves like the piledriver and the Rainmaker, and minutes later takes the 2 pts home. Awesome main event.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
Kinda in the same vein as the previous show, some ups and downs ,but the three final matches were all great and made the show worth watching. It now feels like we're past the initial shows and we're full on with the tournament.

RIP Darryl.

[Big Red Machine]

NJPW G1 Climax 27, Day 4
July 22, 2017
Karouken Hall, Tokyo, Japan


Oh My God. I...I uhh. Fale just killed Darryl like Sentry killed Ares, ripping him in two with all the insides flying off.

I popped SOOOOOOOO hard for this comparison.