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All Aboard the S.S. Strong Style: G1 Climax 25 – Day 2 Recap

Shelly Deathlock cares too much about Japanese wrestling and, as Captain of the S.S. Strong Style, she’s here to welcome you on board and fill you in on what’s going on in the world of puro. In this series, she’s talking about the G1 25.

Hello everyone this is your captain speaking: Welcome to the recap for the G1 25 Climax DAY 2 show. This was a fixed camera show with no commentary and is available on NJPWWorld.

I’m not going to recap every match on every show, but I will pull out bits of shows to say some words about as necessary so you can be caught up on my opinions!

G1 Climax 25 Day 2: Non-tournament matches

Tiger Mask & Jushin Liger vs. Jay White & Yohei Komatsu

Jay White’s missile dropkick, holy crap you guys.

Mascara Dorada, Tetsuya Naito, & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Ryusuke Taguchi, Katsuyori Shibata, & Hiroyoshi Tenzan

The Naito/Shibata interaction in this match got me really excited for their match tomorrow where Shibata will be his normal bored self unless he’s inflicting pain, and Naito will be his newfound bored heel self who is trying desperately not to give a fuck.

G1 Climax 25 Day 2 – Block B: Results & Review

I’ll give some quick tips here about whether or not you should take time to watch these if you haven’t, based on my own knowledge and taste in professional wrestling.

Satoshi Kojima vs. Tomohiro Ishii

This was pretty good, but I don’t think it lived up to all the furor of their post-match interaction from Day 1 that set this match up. The other day, it was like Kojima said something bad about Ishii’s mama and Ishii was going to murder him. During the match, they’re their usual intense selves and they do the chops and the suplexes and it’s good, but I wish there had been more attempted murder involved.

Should you watch this? If you like chops & suplexes & tough guys.

Winner: ISHII

Hirooki Goto vs. Yujiro Takahashi

Yujiro Takahashi comes out with Mao. She’s gorgeous, radiant, her smile could light a city block.

Should you watch this? Just the opening, with Mao.

Winner: MAO. I mean, GOTO.

Yuji Nagata vs. Tomoaki Honma

YESSSS just what we all expected, basically — Yuji Nagata being an absolute beast, and Honma doing everything he can trying desperately to get a win. If you’re invested in Honmania you won’t want to miss it, except, well..

Should you watch this? Yes, if your heart can take it.

Winner: NAGATA

Kazuchika Okada vs. Michael Elgin

I thought this was a very good match. Elgin did a lot to look like a real threat and show the crowd what he can do in his first singles match in NJPW. Okada & Elgin spent the duration trying to outmanuever and overpower each other and it was fun to watch.

Should you watch this? Absolutely.

Winner: OKADA

Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Karl Anderson

If you know me, you probably know I rate Shinsuke Nakamura matches very highly, but I do believe I try to be fair. His last match with Goto, for instance, I wouldn’t put at higher than three stars. I think that’s reasonable. I can recognize when he doesn’t have a stellar match.

That said, I also have a ~lot of emotions~ here that may be enhancing my experience of this match that you may not be having. But it’s my column so let’s go with it and you can decide for yourself.

HOLY SHIT this was brilliant. First of all, Shinsuke came out in new gear — leather tuxedo pants with a red stripe and a jacket with tails. The other day, I tweeted demanding to know why no one has tuxedo matches anymore. COINCIDENCE? Probably. AMAZING? Yes, oh god, he looked incredible.

Karl Anderson is REALLY good at wrestling. It’s his job, he’s been doing it for a long time, and he’s better at it than most people currently doing it. When he gets offense in on Shinsuke it physically hurts me because I am insane but also because it looks amazing. They’re incredible together. I loved it, even though I was pissed off the entire time, and stayed pissed off. I’m still pissed off but I’m wired because the match was so good. Damn, boys.

Should you watch this? Only if you love pro wrestling.

Winner: ANDERSON, WHAT THE FUCK? WHAT THE FUCK KARL.

Updated G1 Climax 25 Scorecard

You can see my updated Google Docs scorecard here. The points standings so far are:

Block A:

Wrestler Score
Hiroshi Tanahashi 2
Togi Makabe 2
Katsuyori Shibata 0
Tetsuya Naito 2
Hiroyoshi Tenzan 2
Kota Ibushi 0
Toru Yano 0
AJ Styles 2
Doc Gallows 0
Bad Luck Fale 0

Block B:

Wrestler Score
Satoshi Kojima 0
Yuji Nagata 2
Hirooki Goto 2
Tomoaki Honma 0
Shinsuke Nakamura 0
Kazuchika Okada 2
Tomohiro Ishii 2
Michael Elgin 0
Karl Anderson 2
Yujiro Takahashi 0

Next time in the G1 Climax!

The next show is Friday, July 24, featuring A Block tournament matches. I’ve bolded the matches I’m particularly looking forward to – see you then!

Kota Ibushi vs. Doc Gallows
Togi Makabe vs. Bad Luck Fale
Toru Yano vs. AJ Styles
Katsuyori Shibata vs. Tetsuya Naito
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan

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