By Bryan Rose, WrestlingObserver.com
Welcome to this morning’s coverage of the G1 Climax 25 tournament, held today in Iwate. Today’s show is a fixed camera show with no commentary. It’s also been confirmed again that Tiger Mask is out of today’s card, so it seems whatever neck injury he’s suffered will keep him out for a while.
Satoshi Kojima, Yuji Nagata & Yohei Komatsu vs. Hirooki Goto, Michael Elgin and Mascara Dorada
Good opener. As one would expect, since they’re facing one another shortly, both Elgin and Nagata, as well as Kojima and Goto, went at it. They kept it simple and had some good back and forth. It ended up being Dorada against Komatsu, with Dorada getting the win with the Dorada screwdriver.
Tomoaki Honma & Jay White vs. Karl Anderson & Cody Hall
Again, as one would assume, this was about Anderson and Honma interactions. Pretty solid tag team match. Crowd was into Jay White’s comeback. He kicked out of a gun stun and tried some near falls but Anderson caught him in another one and pinned him.
Shinsuke Nakamura & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Yujiro Takahashi & Tama Tonga
Another solid bout of back and forth action. A lot of the match was Yujiro working on both Nakamura and Ishii. Tonga was tagged in, but eventually got laid out with a boma ye/sliding D combo from both members of Chaos, which Yujiro actually broke up before the 3 count. He was ejected quickly as Ishii got the win with a brainbuster on Tama Tonga.
KUSHIDA, Ryusuke Taguchi & Captain New Japan vs. Kazuchika Okada, YOSHI-HASHI & Gedo
Pretty good six man. Everyone got time to shine. Since he was the only heavyweight on the team Captain New JApan and Okada faced off against one another. Taguchi at one point was about to lay out Okada with his hip attack but Okada eliminated him. He did his signature moves on Captain New Japan and pinned him with the rainmaker.
Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Bad Luck Fale
Not very interesting, though it was well booked and nothing looked that bad. They did a brawl early that sent out Tenzan into the crowd. Tenzan made his comeback and had the Anaconda buster but Fale escaped. He laid him out and pinned him with the high fly flow.
Katsuyori Shibata vs. Toru Yano
Shibata jumped him before the bell even rang and just waylayed on him. Yano had some offense, which consisted of whipping Shibata into the ropes, but it was mostly Shibata on offense. Yano tried to escape the penalty kick but Shibata faked him out and hit him with it, then went for an armbar. Yano then rolled him up and got a flash pinfall. Crowd reacted huge to that.
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Doc Gallows
Good match. Was just average until Tanahashi ate a boot and a brainbuster for a great near fall that got the crowd into the match. Tanahashi looked like he was about to be powerbombed, but then reversed into a roll up for the win. Most of the match was just standard back and forth stuff, but the last couple of minutes or so were fun.
AJ Styles vs. Togi Makabe
Physical match, as one would expect from these two. Crowd were into this from the start. Makabe hit the kneeling powerbomb and went for the knee drop off the top rope but AJ dodged. He teased the Bloody Sunday DDT but it was blocked. AJ responded with a pele kick then pinned him after the Styles Clash. Seemed kind of short, but was really good while it lasted.
Kota Ibushi vs. Tetsuya Naito
Great back and forth match filled with some crazy moves, which included Naito doing a reverse hurricanrana from the top rope and a Gonzo bomb from Ibushi when Naito tried to do a roll up. Looks like Ibushi landed right on his neck after that reverse rana. Naito hit a dragon suplex but Ibushi kicked out, but did not kick out Naito’s new finisher, Destino, the sliced bread into a reverse DDT.
Current Standings
Block A
Katsuyori Shibata- 8
Bad Luck Fale- 8
Tetsuya Natio- 8
AJ Styles- 8
Hiroshi Tanhashi- 8
Kota Ibushi- 6
Togi Makabe- 4
Toru Yano- 4
Hiroyoshi Tenzan- 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