We are back with our coverage of both A and B Blocks of the G1 Climax 26. Here’s what went down on nights 5 and 6. A BlockRainmaker is the King of Chaos. Kazuchika Okada defeated Hirooki Goto in a hard fought contest that headlined night 5. Despite been team mates in the Chaos stable, these two have faced off quite a lot in the past few years, and their chemistry was evident in this back and forth contest. Okada improves his record to 2-1, matching Goto’s 2-1 record. Logic would dictate that Okada will be around the top of the A Block table in a few weeks, while Goto, who was a finalist in this years New Japan Cup, will probably trade wins and losses from this point. The Ace falls to the Bad Boy. Hiroshi Tanahashi is a star that the NJPW fans are used to seeing having his hand raised, which makes the fact that he is now 0-3 in the G1 all the more shocking. Tama Tonga (1-2) was the latest man to take advantage of Tanahashi’s struggle for form in the tournament when he blocked the High Fly Flow before hitting the Ace with the gun stun and pinning him clean in the middle and picking up his first win of the Tournament. The crowd were stunned at the result, sitting in almost silence as Tanahashi screamed in frustration. Will Tanahashi pick up a win soon? The Streak is over. Naomichi Marufuji surprised everyone on night one by defeating Okada, and now he has acted as the spoiler again, becoming the stumbling block in the “one last time” fairy tale that is Hiroyoshi Tenzan’s G1 run. The Moonsault that has given Tenzan 2 wins previously proved to be his undoing in this hard-hitting contest, as Marufuji avoided it before hitting the Shitanui for the win. Marufuji also lit up Tenzan with chops, leaving welts and blood on his chest, showing just how tough the NOAH stand out can be. Tenzan and Marufuji now both sit with 2-1 records. King Kong cracks Cold Skull. SANADA has failed to live up to his first night performance as he fell to the still undefeated Togi Makabe. The Los Ingobernables newcomer took over the match early, but the brute force of Makabe proved too much for him as he was caught with the Spider German and the King Kong Knee Drop. Sanada falls to 1-2 while Makabe tops the group with a perfect 3-0 record. Stone Pitbull will murder you. In the opening contest, Tomohiro Ishii picked up his first win of the tournament defeating Bad Luck Fale of the Bullet Club. Ishii did a great job making Fale look like a monster, which with the large height difference wasn’t difficult, however the finish saw Ishii and Fale attempt to take off each others head before the Stone Pitbull picked up Fale and held him for a delayed Brainbuster for the win. Ishii moves to 1-2, matching Fales record. B BlockUnbreakable! In the main event of Night 6, the IWGP Intercontinental Champion Michael Elgin finally picked up a win over NEVER Openweight Champion Katsuyori Shibata. Despite his poor run of results, Elgin has so far been the performer of the tournament, and while this didn’t live up to the highs of his contest with Naito on night 4 (Seriously, go and watch it now), Shibata proved a capiable opponent in his contest that saw Elgin try and out-power the hard hitting openweight champ. Elgin battled through Sleepers and suplexes to his Shibata with the Spiral bomb for the win, picking up his first win of the tournament while giving Shibata his second loss. Cleaning Up Kenny Omega improved his record to 2-1 by taking out the previously unbeaten Tomoaki Honma with the One Winged Angel. Omega controlled most of the contest while Honma soaked up the punishment and tried to fight back, much to the delight of the crowd. However it was all for naught as Omega picked up the W. Tranquilo pt2, stop clowning. In an interesting styles clash, Testuya Naito picked up another win over Toru Yano in a match that saw Yano attempt all his usual shenanigans, only for Naito to look at him with an expression that said “I cant be bothered with this”. It was a pretty quick match where once the comedy died down, Naito went to work and finished off Yano quickly with the Destino, improving his record to 2-1 while Yano has failed to pick up a victory so far. Kick the Evil out. Los Ingobernables de Japon big man EVIL suffered his second defeat of the G1 to NOAH import Katsuhiko Nakajima. EVIL battled hard, hitting an impressive Death valley driver into a Backbreaker, but he was no match for the hard kicks of Nakajima, who finished off the King of Darkness with the PK and a brainbuster, improving his record to 2-1 Blue Justice continues the fight! Yugi Nagata at 48 is showing everyone that he is still as tough as they come as he defeated YOSHI HASHI in a fantastic opening match. YOSHI-HASHI took it to Nagata at every opportunity, but with the crowd behind him, Nagata hit the Backdrop driver that has done him well so far to take his record to 3-0, placing him at the top of B Block, While YOSHI-HASHI fell to 1-2.
We at the Royal Grumble will be covering all the G1 action, You can also watch the whole G1 (with English commentary on the final 3 nights courtesy of Kevin Kelly and Steve Corino) 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.
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