What a closing night for the A Block of this years G1 Climax 26. It really had everything you could ask for with great matches and lots of drama. Here we go through the action from Night 17, and then pick the Top 3 stars, and top 3 matches of the A Block A Block Final - Night 17Coming into this show, 5 men were within reach of the G1 Final, Bad Luck Fale, Naomichi Marufuji, Hirooki Goto, Kazuchika Okada and Hiroshi Tanahashi, by the end of the night we would have a winner that few would have expected. The G1 matches started with SANADA vs Hiroyoshi Tenzan, the crowd strongly behind Tenzan in what looks to have been this legendary competitors final G1 match up. Its quite sad that with the momentum Tenzan's story had coming into this G1 that more wasnt done with it, instead we have had to witness the decline of a legend rather than the one last run we all hoped for. This was made worse by the fact that he has obviously been struggling physically, however the magic was back for one last night as he and SANADA put on a great performance to get us going. Tenzan took punishment from SANADA in the early going, but seemed to be gaining momentum, hitting a huge lariat with a nod to his friend Kojima who stood in his corner, before locking in the Anaconda vice and the Anaconda buster for a near fall. Sadly, neither Gedo, or SANADA are fans of happy endings. SANADA locked in the Skull end and forced Tenzan to reach for the ropes, hit a huge moonsault before locking it in one more time, leaving Tenzan no option but to tap. After the match, Tenzan was openly weeping but received the recognition he deserved from this crowd. Next up was a match this writer was looking forward to, Tomohiro Ishii vs Togi Makabe. Neither man could progress to the final, so this was all about pride, which manifested itself in an early tradeoff between Ishii's concussive elbow strikes and Makabe's clubbing forearm for what seemed like 4 or 5 minutes, eventually leaving Makabe staring blankly at the ceiling. This match was another brilliant, hard hitting performance from both men and was finally ended when Ishii landed a sick vertical drop Brainbuster for the win. He may not be in the final but he is a true star. (more on this later) It was now battle of the Bullet Club time with Bad Luck Fale vs Tama Tonga. At the beginning it looked as though Tonga would lay down for his stablemate, Fale only needed a win and would be guaranteed the spot in the finals, however Tonga had too much pride to allow himself to be pinned and hit back at the big man as the rest of the bullet club watched on in horror, awaiting the retaliation of the Underboss. That retaliation came in the form of a Bad Luck Fall onto the rest of the BC. Tonga however came back from this and in what was surprisingly a very good contest, got the big win with the Gun Stun. Any worry of bad blood was quickly swept away as the two shared a too sweet and helped each other to the back. These two dont feature in my top stars, however both deserve a special mention, especially Tama Tonga, as they both seemed to start off a little slow but improved dramatically by the end of the A Block. Fale will always have his limitations with his size, but with the right opponent can knock it out of the park, and Tonga, with the experience he gained in this tournament, could be the next breakout singles star of the Bullet Club if its done right, and he ditches those compression tights. Next up was Hirooki Goto vs Naomichi Marufuji, with both men sat on 10 points, a win here was of the upmost importance. The two brawled at the start and battled back and forth for control. As things came to a head, Goto looked to his the GTR only to receive some pinpoint kicks to the head from Marufuji, who then attempted the Sliced Bread only to be caught in a rear naked choke. Goto hung on with everything he had until Marufuji faded enough for him to finally hit the GTR and get the win. The night wasnt over for Goto however, as he had lost to both Okada and Tanahashi, meaning a draw would put him through to the final, he now had to sit and wait, at least he knew he would be going on one hell of a ride. The main event of the A Block finals was not the beginning or end of something, but another chapter in the storied rivalry of Kazuchika Okada and Hiroshi Tanahashi. These two have had so many classic encounters that there was no way this match would not deliver. The two set an astonishing pace from the outset, with Okada going for the rainmaker early only for Tanahashi to counter, Okada learned his lesson and finally slowed down the pace, using a range of intricate submissions to try and take out the Ace. The action spilled to the outside where Tanahashi hit a High Fly Flow to the outside, but couldnt let himself win with a count-out so went to get Okada back in the ring only to be hit with a tombstone on the outside, leading to a near count out for the IWGP champion. Eventually Okada tried again for the rainmaker, only to be hit with the slingblade, a reverse slingblade and a High Fly Flow to his back, Tanahashi turned Okada over and tried to hit the HFF one more time, only to meet Okada's knees. Tanahashi fought back to his feet and got Okada down again,he hit the HFF again and only got a 2, he ran back up the ropes as the announcer told the crowd that only a few seconds remained! Another High Fly Flow, 1, 2.... The time limit expired. Both men, and the referee laid down in complete exhaustion to a huge ovation, but their battle was not won, with a draw neither man would go onto the finals. Go and watch this match, It was out of this world good. With the draw in the main event, this means that HIROOKI GOTO will go to the G1 Final on Sunday. The Final Standings look like this! But who will he face? Follow us on Twitter on the bar to your right or come back to the site tomorrow for all the B Block news. and now, the awards! A Block Best Match Award.3rd Place- Naomichi Marufuji vs Kazuchika Okada - Night 1 This was the opening nights main event featuring two of the top talents from two of japans top organisations. The two had complementary styles with Marufuji's strikes and style matching Okada's presence and ring psychology. This match also set the tone for a shocking A Block as Marufuji beat Okada, meaning he will receive an IWGP title shot later in the year. 2nd Place - Kazuchika Okada vs Hiroshi Tanahashi - Night 17 As you can see from the write up above, this match was outstanding. both men could wrestle 100 times and never have less than a great match. 1st Place Kazuchika Okada vs Tomohiro Ishii - Night 13 This match was only the 2nd this year to receive 5 stars from the Wrestling Observer (the other is Okada vs Tanahashi from WK10). The two Chaos members went at it full force in what was the best match of the A Block, and one of the best NJPW matches outside of WrestleKingdom this year. A Block Most Valuable Player3rd Place - Kazuchika Okada The IWGP Champion had a great year in the tournament, having sensational matches nearly every night, cementing his position as the present and future of NJPW. 2nd Place - Naomichi Marufuji The NOAH competitor was once one that would be in the discussion of best in the world, in this G1 he has shown he is more than capable of having great matches with anyone. I hope to see more of him in NJPW going forward. 1st Place - Tomohiro Ishii Ishii may not have the records of either Marufuji and Okada, but in terms of performances, no one comes close this year. His matches with Tenzan, Makabe, and Okada all showed that not only is he one of the toughest, but is the dark horse when it comes to the best wrestlers in Japan. And with that, the A Block is over, but we at the Royal Grumble will be covering all the G1 B Block action, as well as the Final!. You can watch the final 2 G1 shows(with English commentary courtesy of Kevin Kelly, Steve Corino and Rocky Romero) on NJPWWorld.com, and the sign up instructions can be found here.
Also, leave a comment on our Facebook/Twitter (links in the bar to your right). and as always, listen to the Royal Grumble every Sunday, straight to your podcast listening app via the links in the bar on the right, and on iTunes.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
NEW EPISODES EVERY SUNDAYArchives
March 2017
Categories
All
|