G1 Climax 24 Day 1 Review

Another summer, another G1 Climax tournament. New Japan Pro Wrestling's G1 climax is the biggest tournament in professional wrestling, and the highlight of the year to many wrestling fans around the world. This year the G1 is bigger then ever, having twenty-two participants and spanning over two months. The wrestlers are split into two blocks of eleven and the members of each block all face each other once. A victory nets you two points, in the case of a draw one point goes to each participant. After every match up in each block has happened the leader of block A and B face off in the finals with the winner becoming the G1 Climax 24 champion, and receiving an IWGP Heavyweight title shot at Wrestle Kingdom 9 in the Tokyo Dome. Here is a list of the participants of both block A and B, as well as a run down of my thoughts on each of the matches of the first day of the tournament. The whole tournament is available to buy and watch live via ustream.tv/njpw as well as on delay via my dailymotion for poor people(if you can afford it give NJPW money they deserve it).

Block A:
*Bad Luck Fale
*Shelton X Benjamin
*Doc Gallows
*Tomoaki Honma
*Tomohiro Ishii
*Satoshi Kojima
*Yuji Nagata
*Shinsuke Nakamura
*Katsuyori Shibata
*Davey Boy Smith, Jr.
*Hiroshi Tanahashi

Block B:
*Karl Anderson
*Lance Archer
*Hirooki Goto
*Togi Makabe
*Tetsuya Naito
*Kazuchika Okada
*A.J. Styles
*Minoru Suzuki
*Yujiro Takahashi
*Hiroyoshi Tenzan
*Toru Yano

 G1 Climax Block A match: Bad Luck Fale vs "Stone Pitbull" Tomohiro Ishii

Bad Luck Fale coming off winning the IWGP Intercontinental championship is looking to continue his run of dominance in the very first match of the tournament. Tomohiro Ishii fresh off losing the NEVER Openweight title to former stable mate, now bullet club member Yujiro Takahashi is looking to get revenge on the bullet club for costing him his championship. This match is a classic David vs Goliath story between two men from warring factions. Ishii digs down deep trying to topple the behemoth, fighting his heart out as the crowd cheers him on. Unfortunately he comes up short in the end, succumbing to the Bad Luck Fall. 

Really enjoyable match. Ishii made Fale look good and he continues to be one of the best sellers in professional wrestling today. Going so far as to crawl/stumble his way to the back after the match ended. I thought Fale did a pretty good job considering his limited experience, but for a guy presented as a big bad monster his striking is really light. He also busted out a spear midway through the match that looked awful. You are a giant guy, you should probably just shoulder block the guy and knock him on his ass instead of going for a move that requires agility. 

Overall Rating: Average

G1 Climax Block A Match: Doc Gallows vs Shelton "X" Benjamin

 

This is Doc Gallows first G1 Climax and as far as I know his first singles match in NJPW. Shelton Benjamin was in last years G1 Climax but finished in the middle of the pack. Both men are looking to prove their worth and test their mettle here and it doesn't disappoint.

Gallows gets overwhelmed early but uses his size and power (with the help of steel guard rails and a chair) to overwhelm Benjamin and take control. Both men gave it their all in this one and both impressed me. Gallows has some great, believable strikes which Benjamin sold wonderfully. Benjamin sold his ass off for Gallows and Gallows returned the favor when it was time. Nice give and take and some great athleticism. Probably Gallows best showing in his short NJPW run, but it suffered from little to no crowd reaction.

Overall Rating: Average

G1 Climax 24 Block B Match: Karl "Machine Gun" Anderson vs Hiroyoshi "Fighting Bull" Tenzan

Tenzan was a great wrestler in his prime and the only active wrestler in New Japan to have won multiple G1 Climax, but the major injuries he has sustained over the years really show these days. Karl Anderson is one of the best wrestlers in the world, whether it be Heel or Face the Machine Gun is always able to put on exciting matches and get reactions from the crowd. The loved and respected hometown guy vs the disrespectful foreigner is the story to this match up.

Anderson is great and spends most the match getting heat from the crowd and working hard to make Tenzan look good. Tenzan gets some good reactions as the crowd respects him for all he has done for the company.  Some good sequences. Tenzan gets all his signature spots in. Anderson heels it up. Tenzan beats Anderson with a modified Anaconda Vice.

Overall Rating: About as good as you can get from 2014 Tenzan(Average) 

G1 Climax Block A Match: Yuji "Blue Justice" Nagata vs Satoshi Kojima

Kojima is a former G1 Climax champion and had an outstanding showing in last years tournament. Nagata is fresh of a run as the GHC Heavyweight champion(NOAH's Top Belt). What we got here is two grizzled veterans duking it out and I loved it. Nagata busting out the Nakanishi signature suplex in tribute made me happy.

Simple back and forth match with great sequences, Kojima is amazing at selling his arm. Lots of fun. Kojima hits the Cozy Lariat for the win.

Overall Rating: Good

G1 Climax 24 Block B Match: Minoru Suzuki vs Toru Yano

Yano and Suzuki have been having a feud for over a year. Nothing has changed since it started. Yano trolls the crap out of Suzuki, Suzuki gets upset and makes a mistake, Yano capitalizes on the mistakes, Suzuki gets even angrier. It is the never ending feud of Yano trolling then getting his ass kicked then trolling more then getting his ass kicked. This is one of the ones where he gets his ass kicked then ends up winning via shenanigans while Suzuki throws a tantrum.

Overall Rating: Dud, Nothing much to this one that we haven't seen before.

G1 Climax Block B Match: "Stardust Genius" Tetsuya Naito vs Yujiro Takahashi

Naito won G1 last year and had his push royally screwed up by shaky booking and a hostile crowd. He comes in looking for redemption from last year and finds...his former tag partner whom he beat multiple times last year. Yujiro has been picking up wins steadily since defecting from CHAOS and joining Bullet Club and what we see here is pretty much the exact opposite of their matches last year. Naito spends most the match making Yujiro look like the strongest mother fucker on the planet. The dude sells his ass off and takes the craziest bumps of the show. The commentators at one point said something along the lines of "Power vs Technique" and that's exactly what this was. A couple non-offensive botches, but overall a hell of a match. 

Overall Rating: Good

G1 Climax 24 Block B Match: "The Wild Samurai" Hirooki Goto vs "Unchained King Kong" Togi Makabe

Makabe and Goto are both former G1 winners and as of late have been on the opposite ends of a lot of tag team matches. The Unchained King Kong is going into this match with a rehabbing jaw that he broke against Goto a month or two back. Goto uses this to his advantage and controls most of the match targeting the broken jaw. Makabe wasn't having any of that and made fiery comebacks that drove the crowd wild but got stopped in his tracks anytime Goto was able to target that jaw again. 

Best match of the show so far. Crowd is 100% behind Makabe and pop big for his comebacks. Great simple psychology with Goto using the broken jaw to his advantage and factoring it into the finish by headbutting Makabe right in the mouth and hitting the Shouten Kai.

Overall Rating: Great

G1 Climax 24 Block A Match: Hiroshi "1/100" Tanahashi vs Tomoaki "Kokeshi" Honma

Both men start the match waving the crowd on to cheer and much to Tanahashi's chagrin the arena is fully behind the underdog Honma. Honma wasn't even supposed to be in the G1 this year, but Kota Ibushi who was originally scheduled had to pull out after suffering a major concussion. The thing I love the most about Tanahashi is when he senses the crowd rooting for his opponent, he turns the cockiness way up. Tanahashi has the presence and awareness to put on the match the crowd in the building wants to see on any given night. Honma does his job as the underdog face fantastically and Tanahashi is the perfect foil for Honma's bursts of smash mouth offense. The crowd erupts anytime it looks like Honma might get the upset victory. Incredible match that the underdog Honma just comes up short in, when he isn't able to muster the strength to avoid a High Fly Flow.

Overall Rating: Great

G1 Climax Block A Match: "King of Strong Style" Shinsuke Nakamura vs "The Wrestler" Katsuyori Shibata

As soon as the match card pops up on the screen in the building the entire crowd erupts in excitement. These two haven't had a match together since 2004 and fans have been salivated at the thought of this match up since Shibata returned to NJPW in 2012. Last time they met Shibata came out victorious which lead many to think that Shinsuke was a lock for winning this one. As Jesse "The Body" Ventura once said, THINK AGAIN! This match is full of everything I want in my wrestling. Realistic strikes, hate, realistic grappling, more hate and a hot crowd. What more do I need to say? Go watch this match.

So many great exchanges and sequences I wanted to GIF them all. Shibata hits his best friend KENTA's move Go 2 Sleep into his own finisher the PK for the upset victory as the crowd and commentary go nuts.

Overall Rating: Great. Must See Match.

G1 Climax Block B Match: AJ Styles vs "The Rainmaker" Kazuchika Okada

 

 AJ Styles came in to NJPW and in his first match ended Okada's historic championship reign. Now the new IWGP Heavyweight champion who has defeated Okada two more times since then, is looking to put him away for good. Okada is looking to prove AJ doesn't have his number, that AJ Styles can be defeated, and more importantly that he WILL get his championship back. I genuinely believe this is AJ Styles best match ever. I also believe that this is Okada's best match of the year. Can not say enough good things about this match. Both men show more personality and charisma then they have ever shown. Just an incredible back and forth match with awesome transitions, callbacks to their previous matches, a hot crowd. If I have to poop on anything that happened in this match I'd poop all over that Yujiro run in. Really sick of a run in happening in every Bullet Club match. If I wanted shenanigans like that on every show I'd watch WWE. With that being said, they handled the run in angle incredibly well and it worked out for the match this time. At one point AJ misses a 450 and appears to have face planted so hard his head bounced back off the mat a few times. Really glad he seemed to be okay after that and worked the rest of the match with no issue. 

This match was stupendous. Okada fights back against the interference and is finally able to get a victory over Styles. After the match Okada and Gedo cut an awesome promo that @puro_yottsume on twitter translated for us. 

 Okada: "It's Okada-'san', by the way. There are three things I need to say. First, next time we meet in the ring, I'm taking that belt. Secondly, I'll win all matches in G1 Climax. And finally, I have nothing to say in particular. I'll leave the rest to Gedo."

 Gedo "The summer you've never seen before is coming! Rainmaker just beat the IWGP champion. And I know the rest of the roster is tough...But you know why he's going to beat them all? Cuz he's on an entirely different level! He's coming back to Hokkaido as the champion!"

Overall Rating: Great. Must See Match.

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed the review and the GIFs. I'll try to do this for every NJPW show as well as any other wrestling show I end up watching. Please let me know what you think!