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.
Day 6 was a solid show all around. It’s up on NJPWWorld already! My overview for this show is basically: everything is solid, but nothing is amazing. Watch what you think you’d be interested in and you probably won’t be disappointed.
Unfortunately, Shinsuke Nakamura’s injury prevented him from wrestling on this show, as well, so that’s a big huge disappointment for everyone, probably not least of all Michael Elgin, who was his scheduled opponent for today.
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 6: Non-tournament matches
Tiger Mask & Jushin Liger & Captain New Japan vs. David Finlay & Ryusuke Taguchi & Jay White
Typical fun opener. The Young Lions are great. They even made Taguchi tolerable for me.
YOSHI HASHI & Toru Yano vs. Cody Hall & Doc Gallows
This is notable because Toru Yano is wrestling with a busted noggin and black eye that’s swollen shut. Poor darling baby Yano. I can barely stand to look. That aside, the match is pretty good and YOSHI HASHI IS ON A WINNING STREAK. HOT FIRE.
Mascara Dorada, Kota Ibushi, & Togi Makabe vs. Yohei Komatsu, Katsuyori Shibata, Hiroyoshi Tenzan
Tomorrow morning, Tenzan faces Makabe, and Ibushi faces Shibata. Ibushi and Shibata show some animosity here. That’s pretty typical during these tag match setups for the one-on-one matches. I hope they maintain their fury through the match tomorrow.
Mascara Dorada and Yohei Komatsu work against each other significantly during this match, and I’d love to see a prominent singles match between them. Great stuff!
Michael Elgin, Hiroshi Tanahashi, & Tetsuya Naito vs. Tama Tonga, Bad Luck Fale, & AJ Styles
Tanahashi tagging with Naito after Naito destroyed him yesterday is funny. Naito continues to be impressive. Michael Elgin is in this match because Shinsuke Nakamura had to forfeit their G1 match. That match will not take place and Elgin is awarded the two points.
G1 Climax 25 Day 6 – 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.
Yuji Nagata vs. Yujiro Takahashi
I keep watching Yujiro’s matches with interest because I’m convinced one of them will be good, if only because one of my favorite wrestlers will smash him to death. This one came the closest. The end was pretty exciting.
Should you watch this? It’s good enough to see, but not if you have something else you’d rather be doing.
Winner: TAKAHASHI!?
Hirooki Goto vs. Tomoaki Honma
This was my most-anticipated match after the Shinsuke one was cancelled. It delivers pretty well. I haven’t seen Goto and Honma face each other, and maybe it’s never happened. It is what you expect: Goto hits hard, Honma takes it and hits back, incredible energy for the back & forth, and you really really think Honma is going to take this one.
Should you watch this? It’s good enough to see, but not if you have something else you’d rather be doing.
Winner: GOTO
Tomohiro Ishii vs. Karl Anderson
This was pretty good but not as good as I anticipated. The pacing was okay but it seemed to plod in bits. Not a lot of ~story~ but maybe there isn’t much to tell. They’re both good wrestlers and it was good.
Should you watch this? It’s good enough to see, but not if you have something else you’d rather be doing.
Winner: ISHII
Satoshi Kojima vs. Kazuchika Okada
The crowd wasn’t great all night. In this match, they were behind Kojima and it felt kind of sad. Kojima was having a rough time getting offense in on Okada and capitalizing the offense he did get in. POOR COZY. MY HEART. It wasn’t a squash at all, just a struggle. Lariat fight at the end was fun.
Should you watch this? It’s good enough to see, but not if you have something else you’d rather be doing.
Winner: OKADA
Updated G1 Climax 25 Scorecard
You can see my updated Google Docs scorecard here. Right now we see the leaders in Block A all tied up at four, and the leaders in Block B are Okada and Ishii with six points each! CHAOS! Doc Gallows and Tomoaki Honma are the only competitors with zero points.
The points standings so far are (point leaders bolded):
Block A:
| Hiroshi Tanahashi | 4 |
| Togi Makabe | 2 |
| Katsuyori Shibata | 4 |
| Tetsuya Naito | 4 |
| Hiroyoshi Tenzan | 2 |
| Kota Ibushi | 4 |
| Toru Yano | 2 |
| AJ Styles | 4 |
| Doc Gallows | 0 |
| Bad Luck Fale | 4 |
Block B:
| Satoshi Kojima | 2 |
| Yuji Nagata | 2 |
| Hirooki Goto | 4 |
| Tomoaki Honma | 0 |
| Shinsuke Nakamura | 2 |
| Kazuchika Okada | 6 |
| Tomohiro Ishii | 6 |
| Michael Elgin | 2 |
| Karl Anderson | 4 |
| Yujiro Takahashi | 2 |
Next time in the G1 Climax!
The next show is Wednesday, July 29 featuring A Block tournament matches. I’ve bolded the matches I’m particularly looking forward to. SEE YOU TOMORROW.
Toru Yano vs. Doc Gallows
Togi Makabe vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan
Katsuyori Shibata vs. Kota Ibushi
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Bad Luck Fale
Tetsuya Naito vs. AJ Styles