Jordan’s NJPW G1 Climax 2017 Day 3 Review

NJPW G1 Climax 2017 Day 3 Review

LIJ (EVIL and Hiromu Takahashi) vs. Juice Robinson and David Finlay

My Thoughts: Well we continue a string of very entertaining opening matches her on these nights of G1. I thought the action was good and very fun to watch. I also really enjoyed the interactions EVIL and Juice had and it actually makes me anticipate their match tomorrow. The closing stretch was good and I liked EVIL tapping out Finlay a lot, continuing to hype up his new submission, the Banshee Muzzle. Hopefully he makes Juice tap to it tomorrow following a great match.

Rating: ***1/4

LIJ (SANADA and BUSHI) vs. Suzuki-Gun (Minoru Suzuki and Taichi)

My Thoughts: This match was very good when Taichi wasn’t doing anything. The interactions between SANADA and Suzuki were excellent and really did a great job of making me and others excited for that match, if it’s anything like it was in this match then it’s going to be ridiculously good. Taichi is annoying as fuck though and literally besides some kicks all of his offense is ways of cheating. Fuck Taichi. After a rather enjoyable closing stretch, of course Desperado has to interfere and cost BUSHI the match. I really hope they leave the bullshit out of SANADA/Suzuki tomorrow.

Rating: ***1/4

Tama Tonga and Chase Owens vs. Kenny Omega and Yujiro Takahashi

My Thoughts: This was a very fun match that really did a very good job of escalating. It started as friendly competition and no offense even being done, and then Chase Owens went after Omega’s injured leg for a quick second before regretting it immediately. Tama then got the action going and heavily went after Omega’s leg. Owens was still reluctant and still went to war with his brothers. This was a very good preview for Tama/Omega, especially now with some bad blood between the two. Good stuff here.

Rating: ***1/2

TenCozy (Satoshi Kojima and Hiroyoshi Tenzan) and Michael Elgin vs. CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada, Toru Yano, and Gedo)

My Thoughts: This was a pretty solid match but nothing special to see here. It was a lot of Gedo in action which wasn’t bad but wasn’t great. I’m glad we had less Yano in this one too. I’m really excited for Elgin/Okada, even though this match didn’t really give us a good preview of it here which disappointed me. I love Okada but I’ll be rooting for Elgin tomorrow as I’d love to see a future title match between the two.

Rating: **3/4

Hirooki Goto vs. Yuji Nagata in an A Block G1 Climax Tournament Match

My Thoughts: This was a really fucking good, action-packed, competitive match with a heavily invested crowd as they were heavily behind Nagata. Even though Goto is also a face, they did a really good job of making you feel sympathy for Nagata and really root for him. Nagata performed ridiculously well here and Goto did as well. Nagata put up a tremendous fight but in the end, the younger Goto managed to get the win following a great match. No complaints here. They set the bar for the night with that one, lets see if it’ll be exceeded.

Rating: ****

Tomohiro Ishii vs. Togi Makabe in an A Block G1 Climax Tournament Match

My Thoughts: This was awesome! These two men fucking murdered each other. There was so much brutal offense. Vicious lariats and shots to the head and chest, this was so fun to watch and even made me wince in pain at points. This was strong style done well. They were pushing through the pain, not totally no selling what had just happened to them. They were clearly in pain at points, but they pushed through and tried to continue the best they could. In the end, Ishii got the win with the brainbuster. I didn’t expect myself to enjoy this match as much as I did. Great shit! Definitely Makabe’s best performance in quite some time.

Rating: ****

Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Kota Ibushi in an A Block G1 Climax Tournament Match

My Thoughts: This was ridiculously good and definitely lived up to expectations. Both men stayed in their lane and didn’t do anything to hurt this match, Ibushi even stepped out of his comfort zone a bit and both men beat the hell out of each other with forearms and uppercuts. This featured excellent counters, things that genuinely made my jaw drop, some solid near falls, and it was just very exciting in general. I’m so glad we got to see this match here rather in the CWC because I’m happy these two are in New Japan rather than WWE or NXT.

Rating: ****1/4

Bad Luck Fale vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi in an A Block G1 Climax Tournament Match

My Thoughts: This was a perfectly fine big man vs. smaller man battle. These two have wrestled in the past and they’ve never put on bad matches but they’ve never put on must-see matches. This was actually a bit better than I was expecting but it wasn’t a great match at all. The High Fly Flow to the outside and the Sling Blade on the apron are both fantastic moves and Tanahashi winning by count-out was a huge shock considering New Japan matches very rarely end in count-out. It keeps Fale strong which was their goal as he still looked good and Tanahashi got the points following his upset loss to Sabre.

Rating: ***

Tetsuya Naito vs. YOSHI-HASHI in an A Block G1 Climax Tournament Match

My Thoughts: I felt this match was very good but it just took too long to get going and felt like it lasted too long. I think both men put on great performances but I wasn’t amazed by this. It had the crowd solidly into it the whole way through but I didn’t get invested until the second half. The last few minutes of this match were really good and the time Naito was locked in the Butterfly Lock had me on the edge of my seat. I wish Naito would’ve simply won with the first Destino as it would’ve been an awesome out of nowhere finish, but they had HASHI kick out which I didn’t like. Good main event overall though, I definitely liked this a lot.

Rating: ***3/4

Overall Thoughts: This was another great night of G1 as they continue to roll with putting out awesome shows. The undercard of this show was the best of the tournament thus far and we had three above average matches, a very good match, and solid match in the tournament.

Overall Rating: 8/10