G1 CLIMAX 24: Day 3

G1 CLIMAX 24: DAY THREE
Yamagata City Sports Center, Yamagata
July 25th 2014

Yamagata is the third stop for the 22 man caravan comprising pretty much everybody in New Japan Pro Wrestling's heavyweight division. It's a mountainous region, which is apt for a cliche about somebody attempting to become the KING of the mountain. Admittedly this particular mountain is an abstract mountain. Shut up Fujiwara.

They're in there, somewhere

On paper, Day Three is something of a curate's egg. Following the well-received first two days, it also has a lot to live up to. However, the three matches that top the card all look like seriously tasty dust-ups between the greats of the last generation and the greats of this one. Where that leaves the stars of tomorrow is anybody's guess. Perhaps Shinsuke Nakamura and AJ Styles, who have the night off, can be tasked with providing coherent answers to that question.

Block A: Doc Gallows - Tomoaki Honma
Previous beef: None, aside from tag bouts. This is their first singles encounter.

Honma, providing you're not a hypercritical dick, has allayed all of his doubters mourning Ibushi's absence with the effortless charm he's put into his underdog loser role. Honma also hails from Higashine, 30 miles away from this building, so has an extra incentive for finally getting points on the board.

Honmania is beginning to run wild

The crowd are willing to back their man to the hilt, but Gallows is also on a losing streak and loves to spoil a party. Every time Honma takes the upper hand, the place erupts. When Gallows recaptures the high ground, the deflation is palpable. On missing the top rope Kokeshi for the third match running, Honma capitulates to the mighty Gallows, the silence echoing, the audience acting as they've been temporarily frozen. The match, for all of Honma's pluckiness, didn't quite catch fire in in-ring, but was a perfectly fine opener. **3/4

Gallows [2] d. Honma [0]

Block B: Karl Anderson - Lance Archer
Previous beef: the pair have taken title wins from each other in the tag division but are yet to meet in a singles match.

Another luckless duo meet, looking for their first points on the board. Anderson attacks early but Archer manages to score big with an impressive chokehold-into-overhand throw. Big 'psychotic' facials from Archer and the match goes to the outside.

Karl Anderson: current IWGP Tag Team Champion

From here, very little gelled. Anderson worked Archer's leg, who sold it a little, but was still able to hit his Blackout finisher (inverted crucifix powerbomb) requiring the solidity of both legs. This match wasn't awful - and the surprise ending of Archer's victory leading to Anderson slumping to 0-3 added a certain something - but on the whole it was the worst match of the G1 so far. *3/4

Archer [2] d. Anderson [0]

Block B: Hiroyoshi Tenzan - Yujiro Takahashi

Previous beef: Takahashi scored a win at this stage in the 2013 edition, representing their only singles contest.

Both competitors come to this match having outstripped the minimal levels of  expectation. Again, Takahashi does his bite-hair-bait routine at the start, managing to enrage the Raging Bull even further on the outside by hitting a sliding kick to face on the runway.  

Hiroyoshi Tenzan (r) with Masa Chono: THIS IS WRESTLING

The general unfamiliarity with one another shines through in a match that is perfunctory house show stuff: both guys get their stuff in and wrestle a perfectly credible professional match, but the high bar of the tournament so far cannot be reached. It's no disgrace and even understandable with Tenzan committed to 10 consecutive dates with his broken-down body. In spite of his ails, Tenzan makes Takahashi tap with the Anaconda Vice. **1/2

Tenzan [4] d. Takahashi [2]

Block A: Shelton Benjamin - Tomohiro Ishii

Previous beef: aside from multi-man matches representing their stables, this is the first time that the two have met in-ring.

With two matches quietening the originally-quite-vocal crowd down, Ishii and Benjamin threaten to extend the gloomy tone with a slow start. What chants there are entirely in favour of Ishii - and indeed, it is the former NEVER champion who manages to insert something beyond 'standard wrestling' by selling big for Benjamin's moves as if the Suzuki-gun member had suddenly been injected with Steiner DNA. A routine Irish Whip is sold like a gunshot and suddenly Benjamin's 100% start doesn't look so unlikely.

 

Ishii (r) with Shinsuke Nakamura: keynotes at The Best Dudes In The World convention

This subtle altering of the dynamics allows the crowd to buy into the match as an individual story rather than one more instance of a tournament conveyor belt. Whilst not everything here works amazingly well, there are a couple of cool sequences, one of which involving reversals of the Angle Lock that finally give the crowd some tension. Ishii looks to have the match sewn up when Benjamin pops out of the brainbuster attempt and levels Ishii with the combo that saw him down Fale and Gallows: superkick, Paydirt, goodnight. ***

Benjamin [6] d. Ishii [2]

Block B: Tetsuya Naito - Toru Yano

Previous beef: Naito scored a victory over Yano in the 2011 contest, avenging his defeat in the 2010 contest. However, Yano defeated Naito in the 2013 edition to restablish his overall lead. Yano also won a Battle Royal in which Naito competed in 2007.

Early in the contest, Yano baits Naito to the outside and blasts him with a chair shot to the face. Naito busts hardway (I assume. Given the general 'feel' of this show I doubt they decided to juice to pick the fans up) and looks a bit groggy, potentially jeopardising the match.

recycling last year's poster

Naito carries on gamefully, the blood enhancing Yano's chances of winning exponentially given that he works a series of exposed turnbuckle spots. More than any contest thus far, there's a chemistry here that could have developed into a really fine contest were it given longer. As it is, Naito eventually breaks the limits of Yano's trickery (and surprisingly fine, if fleeting, actual wrestling) ending the contest with a slightly ragged Stardust Press. ***

Naito [4] d. Yano [2]

Block A: Davey Boy Smith Jr. - Katsuyori Shibata

Previous beef: Shibata hammered Smith Jr., who debuted in the 2013 G1. That contest represents the only times paths had crossed in any kind of contest.

Hey Katsuyori. Do you have a minute? OK. I know you're 'The Wrestler' and that's cool, I love that throwback gimmick, it's really getting you over. My friend said he'd never gotten into a wrestler as quickly as he'd gotten into you after seeing you at Wrestle Kingdom 8. But I do have a problem and it's not a big deal but I think it's something you could work on just a teeny-tiny bit before you jump up the ladder.

Davey Boy Smith Jr.: looking for a first victory in 2014

So basically I know part of your deal is that you're old school and that involves less of the 'professional' chicanery and more of the 'realism'. We love that here. The thing is, sometimes the guys you face aren't really into that whole deal. And when you try and make them wrestle in a style that is a bit obscure and owes more to technique, it sort of makes the match, well, suck a bit.

I know, I know, you don't have to tell me. Fundamentals are important. But so is entertainment, Shibata-san. And I know you can do that. I've seen your matches with Goto and Ishii and Nakamura. Lord knows you could be king of this industry if you weren't so blasted stubborn. You have to cut guys like Smith Jr. some slack or at least meet them halfway. That's why we've decided to have him go over today. **1/4

Smith Jr. [2] d. Shibata [2]

Block A: Bad Luck Fale - Yuji Nagata

Previous beef: Nagata defeated Fale under his previous 'King Fale' gimmick in 2012, but the two have only sparingly come into contact since Fale adopted his new persona. Not that it has any bearing on this match, but Fale is essentially a Yuji Nagata project, having taken the lead in training the ex-rugby player upon arrival at the New Japan Dojo. 

Master and pupil, locked at one win and one loss apiece, come together in Block A. Early in the contest nothing seems to work and the crowd are stolid and - rightfully - a little bit reluctant to pick up. Nagata, entirely heel against Honma, eventually works that veteran babyface magic and rouses Yamagata on personality alone. 

Bad Luck Fale: current IWGP Intercontinental Champion

Eventually the contest develops a thread of intensity about it, with Nagata clearly leading the dance all of the way. It looks bad for Fale when he is levelled with Nagata's always-cool momentum-powered Release German Suplex. However, the New Zealander is not the present IC Champion by letting sharp-minded veterans better him, ending the contest with the best utilisation of the Bad Luck Fall to date. **3/4

Fale [4] d. Nagata [2]

Block B: Hirooki Goto - Minoru Suzuki

Previous beef: Despite the 'classic NJPW' atmosphere this match creates, there is little history between the two. Suzuki halted Goto's charge for the New Japan Cup in the second round earlier this year, adding to his two other victories: in the 2011 edition of this competition and a short squash in 2004 when Goto competed as a junior heavyweight.

Hopefully well-rested after his opening day loss inside 140 seconds and a second day off, Minoru Suzuki stomps his way to ring with bannerman TAKA Michinoku to the strains of what some call the greatest entrance music in pro-wrestling. Goto, looking solid in the competition, has what I would call 'the job face', looking a little more circumspect in his entrance motion.

Minoru Suzuki: will hurt you.

As an optimist, I expected a barn-burner between these two but ultimately ended with nary a rabbit hutch ablaze. Suzuki distracted the ref to get TAKA to interfere and slapped Goto and laughed in his face upon the return of fire. Suzuki keeps going for the Gotch-style Piledriver to finish the contest, but is undone by improper preparation as Goto circumvents an attack and inflicts Suzuki's second defeat by pinning predicament. Predictably, the Lonely Warrior is hyper-pissed. **3/4

Goto [6] d. Suzuki [0]

Block A: Hiroshi Tanahashi - Satoshi Kojima

Previous beef: Kojima has been a near-constant presence throughout Tanahashi's career. Kojima defeated Tanahashi at this juncture in 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2013, the latter avenging defeat in the 2012 Block stage. Tanahashi managed to retain his IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Kojima at the New Beginning event in 2012 after gaining it from the same man at the Tokyo Dome 1.4 event in 2011 in a match said to have passed the baton from era to era. The pair also met in All Japan's Champion Carnival in 2008, with Tanahashi picking up the win.

Cut these two guys open and they have 'professional to the last' written through them like a stick of rock. It shouldn't really be a surprise that Kojima is throwing out good-to-great matches left and right even in the autumn of his career, but to some it is so this why I mention it. Tanahashi has at least a *** match with his breakfast every day. There's no better pair to throw in to try and crank this show up a notch.

Kojima vs Tanahashi: poised

And so it proves. A standard exchange of back and forth hits a higher gear when Tanahashi shrugs Kojima off in the corner whilst mounted on the turnbuckle. Kojima yells hard and lariats the standing leg of Tanahashi and he tumbles to the ground outside. The referee starts the count to the wretched Tanahashi. Kojima, a warrior and all-round good guy, goes outside and rolls the Ace of the Universe back into the ring. Ain't gonna win no match by no damn count out and hubris be DAMNED.

Kojima, Japan's biggest Dallas Page fan, hits the Koji Cutter (Diamond Cutter) and the Cozy Crush Dynamite (CCD/DDP, geddit?) and is within 0.0001 seconds of joining Tanahashi on two wins in Block A. Tanahashi, not jokingly called the Japanese John Cena for no reason at all, does eventually pick up the from-behind win, shattering Kojima's chances with a big High Fly Flow. A good match from two of the best, though still within their ken. ***3/4

Tanahashi [6] d. Kojima [2]

Block B: Kazuchika Okada - Togi Makabe

Previous beef: Makabe shocked Okada at this stage last year during Okada's year-plus IWGP Heavyweight reign, gaining some measure of revenge for failing to gain Okada's belt at the Dominion event two months prior. Okada defeated Makabe in the 2012 edition on his way to overall victory. The scores lie at two victories each, with Makabe gaining a quick 2009 singles win.

One of the better emerging stories of this year's G1 is the tale of Togi Makabe's rancid jaw. A slugger by trade, Makabe got hurt in the lower face region on a show before the tournament began and is making selling this a signature manoeuvre all of its own. Will he rethink strategy or plough on as ever?

Okada: half black-metal.

Being a wrestler, he chooses the least wise option. It's not wise because Okada's offence seems to be based entirely around battering Makabe's face in: levelling with uppercuts, dropkicks and a really lovely top rope elbow. Locking in Red Ink right around Makabe's jaw, the 2009 G1 Climax winner looks doomed.

After a lengthy portion of domination by Okada, Makabe roars back into the hunt. The middle section ratchets up the drama steadily, with Makabe countering a Rainmaker attempt with a lariat of his own and dragging the crowd to their feet in anticipation of the shock. Trapping Okada in the corner, Makabe hits the Spider German to set up the King Kong Knee Drop...which is evaded by Okada! 

The recent champion doesn't need a second invitation, dropping the big man with a German suplex and finishing the job with a brutal Rainmaker across Makabe's hurt jaw. A really good performance by both men, with Okada displaying a lot of intensity and volume rather than being his usual cerebral self. ****

Okada [6] d. Makabe [2]

Not the greatest NJPW show you'll ever see but understandable given the overall workload and no rest day to the next show. The two main matches were very good and whilst the undercard was comparatively patchy, we haven't seen anything bad. Wrestling 110 singles matches means they can't all be classics and if the general standard is maintained, we're still in for a world class tournament.

Tomorrow sees a dream match for many in Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Katsuyori Shibata, who I hope sits down and reads my letter to him. Who knows more about pro-wrestling, me or him? I rest my case.

Predictions were 5/10. Slipping day by day. 18/30. Rubbish.