Jordan’s NJPW G1 Climax 2017 Day 2 Review

NJPW G1 Climax 2017 Day 2 Review

I worked a day shift at my job and ended up covering for someone that night so I worked 11 hours total and didn’t get to watch this show until I got home that night but had to stop to record the SSPC, so here’s my review of G1 Day 2 a day late.

Suzuki-Gun (Zack Sabre Jr. and El Desperado) vs. Kota Ibushi and Hirai Kawato

My Thoughts: This was an enjoyable opening contest. Kawato showed the fire he’s been showing in all of his performances and continues to impress and get over. We got a nice little preview of Ibushi/Sabre. The right team won here as they are in fact a team, I just question Desperado getting the pin. I think Sabre should’ve tapped out or pinned Kawato but it’s whatever, didn’t hurt the match itself at all. Overall, this was a good way to get the show started.

Rating: ***

CHAOS (Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii, and Gedo) vs. Yuji Nagata, Togi Makabe, and Tiger Mask IV

My Thoughts: This match had its moments, like some nice offense from Tiger Mask and a solid preview for Goto vs. Nagata whenever it happens and Makabe had some solid interactions with Goto and Ishii. This was just okay to me overall. I thought the closing sequence was somewhat awkward and I didn’t like the finish in general. Another match in a row that they gave a pin to someone who isn’t even in G1 AKA a Jr. Heavyweight. This wasn’t a bad match but I wasn’t entertained the whole way through and felt it wasn’t that great at points.

Rating: **3/4

Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale and Chase Owens) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi and David Finlay

My Thoughts: This was pretty solid overall but felt kind of dead at times and felt too long. Not sure exactly where it clocked in at, but it felt longer than it needed to be. It just felt as though they were dragging it along for no reason. I thought Finlay and Owens really put forth some great work here and I’m getting really worried about Tana’s arm. Is his opponent going to target it every day no matter what? That won’t be good for him in the long run. Bad Luck Fale actually builds some momentum as he gets the win for his team, which is smart. This was a fine match overall but nothing special.

Rating: **3/4

Tetsuya Naito and BUSHI vs. YOSHI-HASHI and Jado

My Thoughts: This was an overall pretty good outing, although it did feel a bit slow at points. The closing sequence was entertaining but the finish came from out of nowhere and I would’ve rather seen Naito get the pin on Jado to look good heading into his match with HASHI. This was an LIJ undercard tag match so you knew it wouldn’t be anything bad to sit through and I did like this for what it was.

Rating: ***

Juice Robinson vs. Satoshi Kojimain a B Block G1 Climax Tournament Match

My Thoughts: This was a surprisingly really great match! I expected a good match but not a great one. This was competitive all throughout that consisted of fast paced and fun action, some great near falls, really well done wrestling, and both men clearly worked really hard, and in the end it paid off. The crowd was heavily invested as they were really into Kojima and that made the near falls even better. I was thoroughly entertained by this match all throughout.

Rating: ****

Tama Tonga vs. Michael Elgin in a B Block G1 Climax Tournament Match

My Thoughts: This was a perfectly solid match that wasn’t great but had its moments but also seemed to feel lifeless at times which prevented it from being a great or even very good match. There were points in this match that felt really flat and boring and then at points it would pick up and get mildly exciting before feeling flat again. There were some good spots in this match that made it better overall, although the finish was odd as you could barely tell it was a reversal by Tonga and even Kevin Kelly thought it was a Falcon Arrow from Elgin. I didn’t like it and it killed me on the finish. Also, Tonga shouldn’t have won here, but I guess New Japan HAS to given him that random big win and this’ll probably be his only big win in G1 this year.

Rating: ***

EVIL vs. SANADA in a B Block G1 Climax Tournament Match

My Thoughts: What I really liked about this match was that even though they’re teammates, they showed no mercy, especially EVIL, and even cheated at times because they are in fact cheaters at heart. I also really liked how well they had each other scouted. SANADA knew how to counter the EVIL STO on multiple occasions, and EVIL kept getting out of Skull End. I enjoyed the competitive action here, this is one of those matches that obviously you would only get in G1 which makes the tournament so awesome. My one gripe is that I thought there were unnecessary points of no selling, like the kickout at 1 midway through from SANADA for some reason. I did think the closing stretch was really fun and I was shocked by the outcome, but cool with it. SANADA performed really well here and EVIL looked great.

Rating: ***3/4

Toru Yano vs. Kazuchika Okada in a B Block G1 Climax Tournament Match

My Thoughts: This was a Toru Yano match which is already bad, but what made this even worse was the fact that it was comedy geek Toru Yano outsmarting the fucking IWGP Heavyweight Champion and the best wrestler in the world. I got what I expected I’d get, a LOT of comedy and all of Yano’s usual tricks. Okada should’ve won a lot quicker than he did. The only thing that saved this match from not being totally lame was that the closing stretch was real fun. I also liked the finish as Okada tapped out Yano rather than beating him with the Rainmaker.

Rating: **

Kenny Omega vs. Minoru Suzuki in a B Block G1 Climax Tournament Match

My Thoughts: I thought this was a pretty good match overall but not spectacular. I thought it told a solid story of Omega overcoming his fear of Suzuki. It started with Omega obviously seeming scared but then he snapped into “Fuck you, I’m gonna kill you.” The leg work from Suzuki was good but the Omega did not consistently sell it throughout which hurt my overall opinion of the match, as well as the unnecessary ref bump and interference which I was afraid of. I feel that really hurt the match and slowed down the momentum they were building. There were too many V-Triggers near the end for my liking and the fucked up reverse rana. Overall this was pretty good but not a great match and its mainly because of the interference.

Rating: ***

Overall Thoughts: I thought this was a solid night of G1 overall. The undercard, while not must-see, was fairly enjoyable. SANADA/EVIL was great and Kojima/Juice was the match of the night. I was underwhelmed by the main event and Yano/Okada kinda sucked which hurt the show as a whole. There is only one must-see match from this show and one match you should watch if you have time and thats the aforementioned matches that I said I liked.

Overall Rating: 6/10