It’s time for one of the final nights of A-Block action. Unlike B-Block where Jeff Cobb, Kazuchika Okada & EVIL are the only names who have a chance to win. In A-Block, KENTA, Zack Sabre Jr, Kota Ibushi, Tomohiro Ishii & Shingo Takagi are all still looking like winners – would this continue tonight?
Zack Sabre Jr. Brings Out The KENTA Of Old
Things would start off with Young Lions Oiwa & Fujita in their first tag team match ever. What better way to start than the reigning IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions, Yoshinobu Kanemarua & El Desperado. For their first match of this type, they did fine – but got beat down hard for an easy win for the champions.
Next up was a special singles match. Tomohiro Ishii would have faced Tetsuya Naito tonight, but gets a scrap with Hiromu Takahashi instead. We’d see Ishii go full speed in this one, arguably matching Takahashi throughout. He’d have to take the best blows of Takahashi, getting the furthest thing from a night off. Ishii would nail the Vertical Drop Brainbuster for the win – but Takahashi over the past two shows gave a great impression on getting him into the G1 Climax next year.
First bit of tournament action of the night would keep things trending in a great direction. The third G1 clash of KENTA & Zack Sabre Jr – with both men having a win each. ZSJ is able to bring out the KENTA everyone wants to see. No mind games, just hard striking and excellent submission work. This was downright excellent – with both men going all out from bell to bell. KENTA garnered some sympathy from the crowd with three painful submission attempts, and used a perfect GTS for the win.
Kota Ibushi Busts Great-O-Khan Up
After two hard hitting matches, a lull was going to come eventually. Yujiro Takahashi & Toru Yano would have a comedy clash, with occasional bits of okay wrestling. Takahashi would hit hard and true, and use the bag of tricks from Yano… only to end up handcuffed under the ring for a count out loss.
Getting back to hard hitting fights – Tanga Loa & Shingo Takagi. Loa has really levelled up in this tournament, learning a lot about himself and his abilities, and would put them to the test against the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion. He’d match Shingo in size and power, but not in skill. His best was flat out not enough, but had his best showing in singles yet – before falling to Last of The Dragon.
Finally main event time, with an interesting match up. Great O-Khan & Kota Ibushi are both unique wrestlers, who are both pretty equally matched in raw skill. Ibushi would have the experience edge, but this battle wasn’t showing much of this. It was carefully fought with strikes and takedowns, with O-Khan making the major mistake of pissing off Ibushi. Ibushi would pay that back by busting his nose with a knee strike – and winning with the Kamigoye.
Who’s Block Is It Anyways?
After tonight’s matches, the scoreboard in the A-Block looks like this.
Kota Ibushi – 12 points
KENTA, Zack Sabre Jr, Shingo Takagi – 10 points
Toru Yano, Great O-Khan, Tomohiro Ishii, – 8 points
Yujiro Takahashi, Tanga Loa – 4 points
Tetsuya Naito – 0 Points
Things are coming down to the wire at this point – and there’s only two matches left for most in the tournament – with Ibushi & O-Khan still having forfeit matches, capping their points at 14 & 10 respectively. Who will win the A-Block? Let us know what you think in the comment section down below.
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