It’s time for more action in the G1 Climax tournament. The A-Block is in an interesting and unique spot after Tetsuya Naito was forced to give up eight of his nine matches due to injury, leaving some cards one match short – and eight men two points ahead. Shingo Takagi would have faced his L.I.J ally tonight, but instead would have a special singles match.
Shingo Takagi Gets Tested By A Legend
However, you can’t have the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion opening the show, so instead we have a Young Lion getting tested. Kosei Fujita was last seen getting tortured by SHO, and would have an easier time tonight as he faced off with Master Wato. It was a solid but unremarkable match – with Wato winning using a High Angle Boston Crab.
Shingo Takagi would get Yuji Nagata in a first time singles match. Nagata retired from G1 action a few years back, feeling he couldn’t go a whole tournament – but can dial it up for one big match like this. He’d take the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion to his limits, exploiting the injury caused by Zack Sabre Jr. in the last match to come close to a win. Shingo might have gotten a free two points, but Nagata didn’t give him a night off.
First tournament match of the night would see Yujiro Takahashi take on A-Block leader Great O-Khan. Takahashi has really been giving his all this year, especially after getting a win over Kota Ibushi to start his tournament off. He’d really gave it to O-Khan, but was outmatched in both wrestling skill and size. A cheap shot on the outside gave him a chance, but O-Khan was too much and The Eliminator got the win.
Who Can Stop Zack Sabre Jr?
Toru Yano has been up to his usual antics in this tournament, but would pour out his bag of tricks before this match with Tanga Loa started. Instead he’d wrestle a proper match against Loa tonight, who has been looking to prove himself. Loa’s trash talking during his brawling alone makes him worth a G1 spot, but after Jado tried to get involved and failed? Yano hit a low blow and rolled him up for the win. That’s clean for him!
KENTA has a good chance in this tournament despite losing his first match to Yano, and would match up with Ishii tonight. Ishii always brings out the best of Yano, and after the usual mind games tonight, he’d really start to lay in the strikes during a targeted attack in the right arm of Ishii. Ishii was able to withstand an inhuman amount of punishment like always, only losing after being rammed into an exposed corner and being rolled up with his tights pulled.
The main event would see another clash between Kota Ibushi & Zack Sabre Jr. These two always bring unmatched levels of chemistry, and this was a crucial match for ZSJ. He’s already tapped out both Naito & Shingo, and Ibushi is really his last big challenge in the block. They’d have a grappling heavy match, where Ibushi showed he can hang with ZSJ, while getting some heavy strikes in… before being wrapped up like a pretzel by ZSJ. He’d have two choices. Suffer another 10 minutes in an inescapable hold or tap out, and he’d choose to fight another day.
Whose Block Is It Anyways?
After this show, the rankings in the A-Block look like this:
Great O-Khan – 8
Zack Sabre, Jr., KENTA, Toru Yano – 6
Kota Ibushi, Shingo Takagi, Yujiro Takahashi – 4
Tanga Loa, Tomohiro Ishii – 2
Tetsuya Naito – 0
Will Zack Sabre Jr. overtake Great-O-Khan soon? Let us know what you think in the comment section down below.
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