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G1 Climax Day 5 Results:
Hiroshima, Hiroshima Green Arena, July 26.
Shinsuke Nakamura was ruled out of today’s show due to an elbow injury, which caused the card to be reshuffled slightly. It is being said that he will be back on the tour when he has recovered. Tomorrow is an off day, so hopefully he will be fit for his match with Michael Elgin on Tuesday.
Tiger Mask IV, Jushin Thunder Liger, Yohei Komatsu & Hirooki Goto defeated David Finlay, Mascara Dorada, Ryusuke Taguchi & Tomoaki Honma
This was a really fun eight man tag opener. Everyone got a chance to shine, particularly all the juniors involved. Goto faces Honma on Tuesday in what will be another great underdog battle for Honma. Finlay looked really good here down the finishing stretch against Tiger. Finlay will make a fantastic heel someday. Tiger eventually pinned Finlay after a double arm suplex from the top.
Yuji Nagata & Captain New Japan defeated Cody Hall & Yujiro Takahashi
This wasn’t good. Nagata did his best, but it was fairly messy. At one point Takahashi was half asleep and didn’t realise that Hall had his hand out for a tag, making them both look like idiots. Nagata made Hall submit to the Nagata Lock.
Karl Anderson & Tama Tonga defeated YOSHI-HASHI & Tomohiro Ishii
The great YOSHI-HASHI streak of 2015 has died at two matches. This was a very good tag match. Again Tonga continues to have a good tour, just like HASHI. Anderson & Ishii go to war on Tuesday in what should be a hell of a match. HASHI missed his Senton Bomb on Anderson, which allowed Anderson to hit the Gun Stun to score the win.
Satoshi Kojima & Michael Elgin defeated Gedo & Kazuchika Okada
This was a really good tag match. We had lots more Elgin power spots. He picked up Okada & Gedo at once, delivering a samoan drop/fall away slam combo. Kojima takes on Okada on Tuesday, two guys that always have excellent G1 matches. They had an awesome exchange here ending in Kojima countering a Rainmaker with a Lariat. Kojima pinned Gedo after a Lariat. Okada looked disgusted after the match.
Block A Matches:
Bad Luck Fale defeated Doc Gallows
We had the first Bullet Club collision of the G1. As you’d expect it wasn’t pretty at all. There were tests of strength, shoulder blocks with neither going down, clotheslines with neither going down. They brawled into the crowd hitting each other with guardrails. Fale got Gallows up for the Bad Luck Fall, which was a sight, but Gallows countered. Fale got the win with The Grenade.
Toru Yano defeated Hiroyoshi Tenzan
Yano started this by spraying water at Tenzan and tying him to the guardrail in an attempt to get him counted out. Just as the match was approaching the end Tenzan split both himself & Yano wide opened with a headbutt. They went straight to the finish with Yano hitting a low blow and a backslide to pin Tenzan.
Katsuyori Shibata defeated Togi Makabe
This was a war and they beat the absolute crap out of each other. There was no messing around with a feeling out process. It was straight into hard strikes and both guys begging for more. There were lots of strong styles one counts too. Shibata scored the win when he put Makabe down with a sleeper and hit the PK. Shibata has been a tournament standout so far and thankfully his elbow was less heavily taped today.
Kota Ibushi defeated AJ Styles
This was absolutely off the charts awesome! Match of the tournament so far. Some of the sequences of counters and reversals in this were mind blowing. The art of pro wrestling at its absolute best. Ibushi attempted his deadlift German suplex only for Styles to counter it into an apron tombstone attempt which ended up with an Ibushi rana off the apron. Styles blocked a top rope springboard rana, Ibushi landed on his feet, Styles hit a rana which was turned into a Styles Clash, which Ibushi countered resulting in Styles hitting a Hollow Point. I mean, just ridiculous stuff and that is just one example of the innovation in this. The near falls at the end were incredible too, with Ibushi kicking out of Bloody Sunday. Ibushi finally got the win with the Phoenix Splash, but my words can’t do this one justice. Go and watch it. AJ Styles is becoming untouchable in terms of match quality and this was a huge moment for Ibushi. These two are now one for one in their series, so hopefully this isn’t the last time they meet.
Tetsuya Naito defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi
This was another incredible match, but for very different reasons to the last one. Naito & Tanahashi told an incredible story around the new attitude of Naito. Naito beat Tanahashi in the 2013 G1 final, so Naito had cockiness, while Tanahashi was completely disgusted at what Naito has become and was having none of it. Naito hit a neckbreaker on the announce table early on, which led to Naito working over the neck of Tanahashi throughout. Tanahashi retaliated by dragon screwing Naito’s knee across the guardrail, the sort of unsportsmanship like behaviour you wouldn’t usually see from Tanahashi, but he was trying to prove a point. The moment of the match for me was when Tanahashi spat at Naito, Naito then spat at Tanahashi. Tanahashi then German suplexed Naito onto his head as if to say “f**k you”. Naito got his knees up on a High Fly Flow attempt. The finish came from nowhere when Naito hit a flipping neckbreaker to get the win. It only came from nowhere as this is the first time Naito has used this as his finisher and it has yet to be established as such, and again it played into Naito working over the neck for much of the match. Just great, great stuff and a big win for Naito.
After the bell Naito thew the referee and young boy out of the ring, got on the mic and shouted about Los Ingobernables. The Naito heel turn is now in full swing and it is fantastic.
This was the best G1 show so far. The last three matches are all outstanding and for very different reasons. An excellent show from New Japan. It is now on demand at NJPW World.
The next show is on Tuesday morning with the following card:
July 28 (Tuesday) 18:30 JST: Oita Beppu Beacon Plaza
Jushin Thunder Liger & Tiger Mask IV vs. Ryusuke Taguchi & David Finlay
Toru Yano & YOSHI-HASHI vs. Doc Gallows & Cody Hall
Togi Makabe, Kota Ibushi & Mascara Dorada vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Katsuyori Shibata & Yohei Komatsu
Hiroshi Tanahashi, Tetsuya Naito & Captain New Japan vs. AJ Styles, Bad Luck Fale & Tama Tonga
Block B:
Yuji Nagata vs. Yujiro Takahashi
Hirooki Goto vs. Tomoaki Honma
Tomohiro Ishii vs. Karl Anderson
Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Michael Elgin
Kazuchika Okada vs. Satoshi Kojima
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