NJPW G1 26 night two results: Katsuyori Shibata vs. Tomoaki Honma

Night two of the G1 is upon us. We pick up where we left off at Korakuen Hall as we go through the prelims, then the start of B Block action:

Tencozy & Manabu Nakanishi defeated David Finlay, Captain New Japan, & Juice Robinson when Satoshi Kojima pinned Captain New Japan after a lariat. Very short, even for a tag match. In an interesting note, they didn’t mute Kojima’s or Tenzan’s music, which is weird as they were muted at the start of the tour.

Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii, & Naomichi Marufuji defeated Tama Tonga, Yujiro Takahashi, and Bad Luck Fale after Marufuji pinned Takahashi with the shiranui.

KUSHIDA, Hiroshi Tanahashi, & Ryusuke Taguchi defeated Togi Makabe, Tiger Mask,  Jushin Liger when KUSHIDA pinned Tiger Mask with a bridge. Tiger Mask and KUSHIDA had good chemistry towards the end. Makabe and Tanahashi had a staredown.

SANADA & BUSHI defeated Kazuchika Okada & Gedo when BUSHI pinned Gedo after the codebreaker.

Onto the G1 matches themselves:

Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Toru Yano

Yano is most interesting in these tournaments as he usually gets some quick wins out of nowhere.

He attempted a few of them in here, but it didn’t work. He tried to use the ref, but Nakajima persevered and gave him a drop toe hold into the post, then pinned him with a penalty kick and brainbuster. Not much of a match.

Kenny Omega vs. YOSHI-HASHI

This started off with a very good pace. This is one of YOSHI-HASHI’s first singles matches in a while and he looked great. He’s very over as an underdog in these kind of matches.

Omega cut him off and wrapped him around the mats on the floor, then followed that with a double footstomp. YOSHI-HASHI made a comeback, but got derailed with the knees to the back following a failed senton attempt.

Omega struck him with the knees and went for the One Winged Angel, but YOSHI-HASHI countered into a DDT. Omega kicked out of the senton and managed to get to the ropes after a submission attempt.

Omega made another comeback, but YOSHI-HASHI came back with a knee strike to the back of the head. But that still didn’t do it. Finally, YOSHI-HASHI hit a modified Michinoku driver and pinned Omega in a big upset. Great match with tons of fantastic near falls towards the end.

Michael Elgin vs. EVIL

About as stiff as you’d expect. A lot of back and forth stiff shots. EVIL’s excelling in this type of match. Elgin hit a frog splash that the announcers called the Big Mike Fly Flow, which is a pretty nice name.

EVIL hit a crazy half nelson suplex then soon followed that with the STO for the surprise clean win. Well, there’s going to be a lot surprise wins in the first few shows. Good, stiff match.

Tetsuya Naito vs. Yuji Nagata

Naito went to work on Nagata’s leg, taking him to the outside, wrapping a post around the leg, and dropkicked it. Nagata kept giving it to Naito, but he remained focused, staying on the leg, and wrapped Nagata’s legs into an ankle lock.

Nagata came back and drilled him with a backdrop driver for a cool near fall. Naito tried to mount a comeback, but Nagata drilled him with a kick to the temple then bashed him with a bridging back suplex for the win.

Nothing totally wrong with this, as it built well and overall was a pretty good match, but it felt like it was missing something until the last few minutes.

Tomoaki Honma vs. Katsuyori Shibata

This was another match where the action was good, but something was missing. I think there’s an element to Honma that’s missing as well as the underdog story from last year isn’t here this year, and as a result he just comes off as just a guy.

They worked hard and there were some stiff spots, but it wasn’t out of this world or anything. The finish was cool as Honma hit a sitout piledriver, then a reverse sitout piledriver (which is the best I can explain it), then hit the Kokeshi from the top rope for for the win.

Honma cut a promo after the match, saying he’s lucky, and that will take him to the finals.

Overall, a pretty fun show from top to bottom. Most of the tags were fine and most of the G1 matches were good, one reaching great. Check out Omega vs. YOSHI-HASHI for sure.