Now into day 4, New Japan Pro Wrestling’s (NJPW) annual tournament rolls on. The G1 Climax 27 for day 4 will feature five more bouts from the B Block of the brackets, headlined by the IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada going to war with BIG MIKE Michael Elgin. Bullet CLub vs Bullet Club will take place, too, as current leader Kenny Omega does battle with founding member Tama Tonga. and Minoru Suzuki will face off with SANADA, of Los Ingobernables de Japon. Juice Robinson versus EVIL and Satoshi Kojima versus Toru Yano round out the night’s tournament matches, and as always there will be multi-man matches for competitors in the other block to try and build momentum before their new tournament matches.
+ Kazuchika Okada vs Michael Elgin (G1 Climax 27 B Block Match): I will never not be hyped at BIG BOIS standing firm after taking a shoulder or lariat, and I don’t think anyone does it btter than Big Mike. The crowd was, very surprisingly, evenly split between these two as they tossed each other all over the ringside. Elgin makes his kicks and elbows sound so great, but for the second time in as many matches the camera has caught him with a very obvious slap of the thigh. By the time this match finished, the entire crowd was on their feet, and I admit I may have been standing up at home too. Absolutely fantastic
+ Kenny Omega vs Tama Tonga (G1 Climax 27 B Block Match): the fallout from the Bullet Club vs Bullet Club match from day 3 contnued, with at least four other BC members at ringside. Tama Tonga dropped countless F-bombs in a verbal tirade, and while this match was very good, I am far more interested in the fallout
+ Minoru Suzuki vs SANADA (G1 Climax 27 B Block Match): I was really looking forward to how this one would play out, and for the most part it made sense. I wish NJPW had a better disqualification system, however, especially since Suzuki had El Desperado at his side for the match, which you can imagine played havoc with SANADA throughout. This was good, though, and I hope to see more between these two in the future
+ Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale, Chase Owens & Yujiro Takahashi) vs Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi & Tetsuya Naito): this match will go down in history for Fale cementing himself as the baddest man on the planet. A solid back and forth match with the ending you’d expect and a moment which will be talked about for the forseeable future
+ Hiroshi Tanahashi & Katsuya Kitamura vs Tomoyuki Oka & Yuji Nagata: holy damn, Kitamura is bigger than ever, and his chops were like gunshots. Both Kitamura and Oka were given a lot of time to shine, which was great to see, especially against two veterans like Tanahashi and Nagata. I enjoyed this more than I thought I would; the two young lions have improved a lot lately
+ CHAOS (Jado & YOSHI-HASHI) vs Suzuki-gun (El Desperado & Zack Sabre Jr.): the crowd loved YOSHI-HASHI here, which is not surprising, but was just unexpected. Some Jado comedy fell flat, and my boy Desperado had to play spoiler a few times. In the end, this was pretty good, but it didn’t really get me any more hyped for Sabre/YOSHI-HASHI
– Juice Robinson vs EVIL (G1 Climax 27 B Block Match): an extended rest after only five or so minutes made me wonder if someone was legitimately hurt, but both men continued seemingly no worse for ware. The match was back and forth, with a particularly good ending sequence, and were it not for that strange pause in the middle it would have been listed as a positive
– David Finlay, Kota Ibushi & Togi Makabe vs CHAOS (Gedo, Hirooki Goto & Tomohiro Ishii): gosh darn, what a line up, with Goto, Ishii, Ibushi and Makabe (but also Finlay and Gedo). Ishii/Ibushi tomorrow is going to be bonkers. This was an alright opening tag, as you’d expect, but it was nothing special
– Satoshi Kojima vs Toru Yano (G1 Climax 27 B Block Match): the Yano comedy was not what I wanted here, especially after the Bullet Club/LIJ tag match. Kojima and Tenzan spent the match dealing with Yano before an uninspired ending
> there were a fair few bad camera moments today, especially in the Tanahashi/Kitamura vs Nagata/Oka match. Lots of good action (and the pre-match posing) was missed
Should you watch this event: Another day, another batch of really solid New Japan matches. Okada/Elgin was fantastic, and Omega/Tonga and Suzuki/SANADA were both really good, and the Los Ingobernables de Japon versus Bullet Club match will bring a tear to your eye. My thoughts about A Block being better than B Block may have been mistaken, becaue this was a great show.
MoshFish Reviews 