Things get complicated for B Block at G1 Climax Night 16

With only one show left for them between this one and the finals, the top of B Block was still packed with contenders, though the IWGP Heavyweight champion still sat on top. As the night progressed, things would start to take shape for a math-heavy final.

Image credit: NJPW.

Tournament action started out with another Bullet Club battle as Karl Anderson battled Yujiro Takahashi. Both men entered together with MAO draped between them as the entire Bullet Club looked on. The two men started to fight though as Anderson seemed to want to steal Yujiro's girl from him.

The G1 Climax reaches its halfway point with an amazing morning of action!

Image credit: NJPW.

Night Ten of the G1 opened with a rare singles match in the preliminatires as David Finlay (the son of WWE produce Dave) took on Ryusuke Taguchi. Since Prince Devitt left NJPW, Taguchi has been rather lackluster, but the two men worked well together here. Finlay is coming together well, much like fellow black short Jay White, but he wasn't ready for the win here.

The preliminaries otherwise were fairly predictable, though KUSHIDA and Naito as a dysfunctional team was entertaining. One other note would be the aftermath of the Bullet Club match, where Sunday's opponents AJ Styles and Doc Gallows exchanged more than nasty words. Either Styles or Gallows might find their way out of Bullet Club sooner rather than later.

B Block brings some hard-hitting offense in their first night of the G1 Climax

Thursday was the second night for G1 action, but of course here in the States that means waking up at 4:30. Luckily for me and my readers, being up at 4:30 is pretty natural, so here is what happened tonight in part two of the G1 Climax.

The night kicked off with the regular multi-man matches but only the alliance of Katsuyori Shibata and Tetsuya Naito (with Ryusuke Taguchi) offered any real intrigue. Shibata and Naito meet tomorrow night and it was interesting to see each try to get into the other's head while ostensibly working together.

Ouch. Image caption: NJPW.

The tournament matches started off with a brutal blast of punches and kicks as Satoshi Kojima took on Tomohiro Ishii. I went in expecting this to be a solid match with Kojima coming out on top. Instead I got a solid brawl with Ishii hitting a mean brainbuster for the two points. Ishii actually looked better than I usually expect here, so maybe we will get more solid matches in the G1 from him.

Yujiro Takahashi had Mao back at his side for his first tournament match, but the beauty was no help against Hirooki Goto. In a match that featured multiple biting spots and some painful looking bumps, Takahashi just couldn't bring it together for Bullet Club. Goto walked away with a relatively easy win.