Home ▸ Drowgoddess ▸ 2016 NJPW G-1 Climax Tournament – Week 1 Recap (Night #3)

Day #3 (7/23/16 – Block A):

Satoshi Kojima, Manabu Nakanishi, Jushin Liger, & Tiger Mask defeated KUSHIDA, Juice Robinson, David Finlay, & Captain New Japan

Though more “Don’t tag in Captain New Japan” hilarity continued, David Finlay was pinned on this one. Tiger Mask seems to want a shot at KUSHIDA’s Junior Heavyweight title.

Katsuhiko Nakajima & YOSHI-HASHI defeated Katsuyori Shibata & Tomoaki Honma

Nakajima and Shibata meet in a battle of “Whose strikes can kill you worse?” in the next round, so they squared off repeatedly. Honma and Shibata were NOT getting along, which should be taken for granted after their tournament match. YOSHI-HASHI rolled up Honma for the win, and did some trash-talking of his own. YOSHI has some spirit! These two face off in the next round as well. Two perennial underdogs. How does that work? Shibata’s right shoulder and arm were heavily bandaged. That’s not good. Last year, he injured one arm to the point of being pulled from the shows just prior to G-1 starting, and wrestled the entire tournament with a bandaged arm. Hopefully, this isn’t a repeat.

Kenny Omega & Yujiro Takahashi defeated Toru Yano & Gedo

Omega and Yano meet in the next round, so we get more CHAOS against Bullet Club. Gedo took the fall here.

Tetsuya Naito, EVIL, & BUSHI defeated Michael Elgin, Yuji Nagata, & Ryusuke Taguchi (EVIL (8:44) following the EVIL on Taguchi)

LIdJ are so much fun to watch in tag matches. Upcoming tournament matches include EVIL against Nagata and Naito against Elgin, so both pairs had their moments here. Taguchi and his butt-based offense ate the pin.

Hiroyoshi Tenzan defeated Tama Tonga

Tenzan’s quest for one last G-1 victory continues to meet with success. Tonga kicked out of the Anaconda Vice, so Tenzan hit him with a moonsault for the pin. The big bull still has it. This was one of Tonga’s better matches.

Hirooki Goto defeated Tomohiro Ishii

CHAOS stablemates went to war, and Goto emerged victorious. Ishii still has no wins, which is surprising.

Bad Luck Fale defeated Naomichi Marufuji

Fale was in full beast mode here, and Marufuji looked strong in defeat. If the NOAH champ was going to hit a roadblock, this was a good one.

Kazuchika Okada defeated SANADA

So SANADA didn’t get two in a row, as some had hoped. Okada’s previous loss seemed to wake him up, and he was more on his game here. SANADA hung with him the whole way, looking completely comfortable in the ring with the champ. The Japanese Punisher (seriously, don’t say that you can’t see it) fell to the Rainmaker in the end, but the match could have gone either way.

Togi Makabe defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi

What is the deal with Makabe? He’s a guy who’s just there at the best of times, and now he’s supposed to be winner material? The story here is Tanahashi’s physical state due to serious injuries, not the least of which is the shoulder that kept him on the shelf for some time. Tanahashi now has two consecutive losses, and desperately needs to get on the board. If anyone can do it, it’s Big Match Tana, but his situation is looking grim.

Cheers,

Drowgoddess

Night 1
Night 2
Night 3
Night 4
Night 5
The Big Picture of Week #1

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