NJPW G1 Climax Tournament 8-4 live results: Goto vs. Nakamura, Anderson vs. Okada

by Bryan Rose, WrestlingObserver.com

Welcome to today’s coverage of the G1 tournament as New Japan is live this morning in Sendai. Tonight’s show is a multi camera setup with no commentary, which seems to be the usual show going forward.

Tiger Mask is again out due to injury, so the tag team match that was meant to start the show has been turned into a singles match.

Ryusuke Taguchi vs. David Finlay

Taguchi had him for most of the match but made a comeback with a european uppercut and at one point had a stretch muffler locked in. Taguchi reversed it into an ankle lock but Finlay escaped. Finlay grabbed him in mid air like he was going to plant him with a German suplex but Taguchi transitioned into the ankle lock and Finlay tapped. Pretty fun little match.

Yohei Komatsu and Katsyuori Shibata vs. Yoshi-Hashi and Toru Yano

Standard match. Komatsu was worked on forever and ever by Chaos, who were playing the heels. Shibata made a brief hot tag and destroyed the two before leaving it to Komatsu, who got several nearfalls and submissions. Yoshi Hashi cut him off and pinned him with the swanton. **1/4

Kushida and Tetsuya Naito vs. Kota Ibushi and Mascara Dorada

It’s weird in that these matches are designed to get you excited for the upcoming singles bout between two of these people on the next show. And while Kota Ibushi and Tetsuya Naito did some great back and forth work, Dorada & Kushida stole the show here. These guys have terrific chemistry and it’s sad they didn’t get to go out there and have a great match in the Best of the Super Juniors tournament. Their closing stretch was awesome, with Dorada somehow springboarding off the top rope into an inside cradle for a fantastic nearfall. Kushida caught him in the hoverboard lock and he tapped out. Great stuff. 

Togi Makabe & Hiroshi Tanahashi & Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Captain New Japan vs. A.J. Styles & Doc Gallows & Bad Luck Fale & Tama Tonga

This was an action-packed match as Bullet Club jumped them right at the bell. Regardless, it was kinda formulaic. Lots of brawling. Both Tanahashi and Makabe got worked on, as well as Tenzan early on with all of Bullet Club getting Mongolian chopped. As usual, it boiled down to Captain New Japan and Tama Tonga, and Tonga won with the waistlock DDT.

Styles and Makabe got into it after the match. 

Michael Elgin vs. Yujiro Takahashi

Good match. Elgin was the star here again as he carried Yujiro to a really good back and forth match. Yujiro’s heat segment again was less than interesting, but when Elgin made his comeback, people were into it. Yujiro suplexed him on the outside and was going for the Miami Shine but Elgin blocked it, gave him the buckle bomb then followed with the spinning powerbomb for the win. 

Satoshi Kojima vs. Tomoaki Honma

Very good match. Most of it was good back and forth between the two. Crowd was into it, but not at the level I thought it would be. Finishing sequence was pretty hot, though. Honma ate a lariat but got up very quickly and was making a comeback. He tried for a kokeshi, but between the kokeshi and a lariat, Kojima’s lariat won, then followed with another for the win.

Yuji Nagata vs. Tomohiro Ishii

Ishii dealt out chops while Nagata kicked him in the chest as hard as he could. Nagata controlled a lot of the match, including giving him an exploder suplex into the turnbuckle and even dealt out an ego trip. They had a slap contest that ended when Ishii headbutted Nagata hard in the face and hit a sliding D for a nearfall, then pinned him with the brainbuster. Great match, these two have always had great chemistry. Not as good as their match from last year, but still great.  

Karl Anderson vs. Kazuchika Okada

This was good, but not great. The crowd were interested at times, and disinterested in others. It created the type of match where everything technically was good, but at the same time felt just kind of there with an uninterested crowd. There did some nice reversals near the end with Okada reversing a gun stun and laying Anderson out with the tombstone, then pinning him with the rainmaker. Finish felt rather anticlimactic as it seemed like no one thought the finish was coming yet. 

Hirooki Goto vs. Shinsuke Nakamura

Crowd finally started to pick up for this one in the middle of the match. Really picked up once they were going for near falls. Nakamura went for the boma ye but Goto blocked him and hit the reverse neckbreaker. They were exchanging back and forth maneuvers when Nakamura trapped Goto in the spinning armbreaker and actually submitted him in a big surprise. They’ve had better matches, but this was a perfectly acceptable main event.

Current Standings

Block A

Katsuyori Shibata- 8

Bad Luck Fale- 6

Tetsuya Natio- 6

AJ Styles- 6

Hiroshi Tanhashi- 6

Kota Ibushi- 6

Togi Makabe- 4

Hiroyoshi Tenzan- 2

Toru Yano- 2
Doc Gallows- 2

Block B

Tomohiro Ishii- 8

Kazuchika Okada- 8

Karl Anderson- 6

Hirooki Goto- 6

Shinsuke Nakamura- 6

Michael Elgin- 6

Yujiro Takahashi- 4

Satoshi Kojima- 4

Yuji Nagata- 2

Tomoaki Honma- 0