Night seven brings clear leaders to the G1 Climax A Block

Image credit: NJPW.

After some solid openers including some great work by young Jay White and David Finlay in the opening, as well as a superb tag match pitting the team of Honma and Elgin against Ishii and YOSHI-HASHI, it is time for some more A Block action in NJPW.

Doc Gallows and Toru Yano started the action out and gave pretty much the showing you would expect from the pair in the ring. While it was far from bad, it was rather generic, but at least Gallows finally scores his first two points. Everyone in A Block is now on the board.

Tenzan took the fall in the second tournament match, continuing a streak of losses. Togi Makabe looked good in the battle, though he seemed to take it a bit easier than usual on the injured veteran.

In a match exactly as brutal with strikes as expected from Katsuyori Shibata and Kota Ibushi, Shibata again picked up the win with his Sleeper into PK combo. This was easily match of the night, just a really good striker versus flyer battle. Shibata has looked amazing during the tournament this year. I suspect we will see him get a push even if he doesn't win the final tournament.

Bad Luck Fale beat Hiroshi Tanahashi. I still can't believe I'm writing those words. And no, it still wasn't a very good match.

AJ Styles finally got his first G1 main event against the equally heelish Tetsuya Naito. The match was incredibly back and forth, with both villains getting some support from the fans. It ended up stronger for the native Naito though and his win came with more than a smattering of cheer. He made sure to attack referee Red Shoes post-match to get his heel heat back