A Block comes to an end with Styles vs. Tanahashi

With the non-tournament matches becoming more important with the influx of all the other wrestlers now arriving to work the weekend of events, it becomes pertinent to cover the entire card.

All images credited to NJPW.

The show opened with a Bullet Club win as the team of Karl Anderson, Tama Tonga & Yujiro Takahashi beat the team of Satoshi Kojima, Tomoaki Honma and Mascara Dorada. The match featured a definite tease of the Kojima/Anderson match coming tomorrow night.

The second match of the night featured one B Block competitor but its implications were far more oriented towards Sunday's finale as IWGP Jr. Tag Team champions Nick and Matt Jackson, the Young Bucks, teamed with their Bullet Club stablemate Cody Hall to take on the ROH unit of Michael Elgin, Kyle O'Reilly & Bobby Fish. The Bucks and ReDRagon will face off on Sunday for the titles and both units wanted to make a statement in their first night back in Japan.

The A Block finals take shape in a big night of G1 action!

With only five nights left, Night 15 was a vitally important night for A Block as the final fighters for the G1 A Block semi-finalist would be determined.

Image credit: NJPW.

The tournament battles opened with Doc Gallows versus Tetsuya Naito. Amazingly, Gallows played the face in the battle. While Gallows has long been eliminated from contention, a powerbomb from the top kept Naito from getting two important matches going into the end of the night.

The second match of the night saw Katsuyori Shibata sadly fall yet again, this time to Hiroyoshi Tenzan. This was probably Tenzan's best tournament match, but it eliminated Shibata from any chance at a win.

Eight is the magic number at Night 11 of the G1 Climax!

Night 11 brought the action back to a single fixed camera format, which only encouraged my decision to skip the preliminaries. I've seen indies with one camera with better presentation than this gives New Japan.

Image credit: NJPW.

In a match that made me shiver not with anticipation but with dread, Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Bad Luck Fale opened the tournament matches. One once-fast, now-plodding worker against one never-fast always-plodding worker does n ot a good match make. Fale hit an ugly splash from the top to stay in contention with 8 points.

Toru Yano got a quick roll up in a five minute match on Katsuyori Shibata to start a theme of the night as he also made it to 8 points. I would guess this was designed to heal Yano's still very messed up eye, but it was a depressing finish for a Shibata match, as they have been a highlight of the tournament.

A busy weekend with Night 4 and 5 of the G1 Climax!

I have two shows to cover here, so let's get right into the tournament action.

Image credit: NJPW.

Night 4 kicked off with a brutal battle where Tomohiro Ishii became the first B Block fighter with 4 points when he overcame Yujiro Takahashi. (I blame the poor substitute MAO for his loss.)

Michael Elgin and Satoshi Kojima beat the hell out of each other in a match that shows how good Kojima still is. Elgin took the loss in a true back and forth battle with a great show of respect in the aftermath by both men.

Karl Anderson continued to upset Japanese favorites, this time overcoming Intercontinental champion Hirooki Goto in a brutal match.

New Japan continues a weekend of excellence with Night Three of the G1 Climax!

Things kicked off with the regular prelims, all designed to preview some fights for tomorrow night. I of course forgot to set my alarm, so I missed all but the end of the final battle between the CHAOS unit of Okada, Nakamura and Gedo and the team of Nagata, Honma & Ryusuke Taguchi. It was a pretty solid match and Honma even got a rare win over Gedo.

Image credit: NJPW.

The G1 tournament matches for night three kicked off with Doc Gallows and Kota Ibushi. Gallows worked the match at his pace, landing one big move after another on Ibushi. But much like night one, Ibushi showed a lack of selling for much of the offense against him, but at least it took a flash pin to get the win.

G1 Climax 2015 Preview - Block A part 1

G1 Climax is the biggest tournament in New Japan. Held annually in July and August, it encompasses some of the greatest stars in New Japan mixed with a few guests of high note. Its purpose is similar to WWE's Royal Rumble: it will crown the contender for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at the January dome show, presumably called Wrestle Kingdom 10.

While this year's tournament only features 20 stars, two less than last year's record breaking 22, it will be the longest G1 tournament in New Japan history, stretching over 19 shows between July 20 and August 16.

I am always interested in informing American fans about the talent they might be missing without a NJPW World subscription, so over the next four days I will cover the talent in the tournament, broken down by the A and B blocks of the round robin tournament, each split into five easy to cover talents. I will cover them by match listings for the two opening round days of the tournament.

Hiroyoshi Tenzan: Tenzan is a New Japan living legend. A twenty year veteran of the promotion, his accomplishments in the company are massive. An eleven time IWGP tag team champion and a four time IWGP heavyweight champion, he has completed in 20 straight tournaments, by far the most of any competitor. He is the current NWA champion after scoring a win over Rob Conway in February. While he has lost a step since his heyday in the early 2000s, Tenzan can still put on great matches, but don't expect his numbers to sail too high in the tournament, especially with his initial contest against the next competitor.

Doc Gallows: Formerly known as Festus and Luke Gallows in WWE as well as TNA as D.O.C., Doc Gallows is one of the most hated men in NJPW. One of the meanest members of the reviled gaijin stable, The Bullet Club, Gallows is also the current IWGP Tag Team champion. Last year, he finished on the low end of the totals, but Gallows has only become more fearsome since that time. I expect Gallows to go far this time around, especially if his wife Amber gets involved from outside.

Dominion 7.5: have we already seen the best show of the summer?

In the last few years, New Japan Pro Wrestling has grown from just another Japanese wrestling company into easily the second largest brand in professional wrestling today. They have done so with a mix of straight forward puroresu aesthetics: highly competitive matches with high work rates, solid storytelling and psychology, and clean finishes—usually, at least.

Their fandom is on the rise worldwide thanks to the AXS television series airing classic matches of the last few years as well as the far more significant (IMHO) New Japan World. The streaming service is cheaper than WWE Network, but offers almost every New Japan show in history. Much like WWE, it also includes live streaming of all its current fare. This will be thoroughly impressive later this month as the G1 Climax tournament starts (more in the future), but it also makes shows like the epic Dominion 7.5 well worth watching.

Much like January's Wrestle Kingdom event, Dominion 7.5 was built to be a supercard in a company already known for great pay-per-views. While Jim Ross and Matt Striker did not call the action in English for this event, the wonderful thing about NJPW is that so much of the action speaks for itself.

I talked about the undercard in my preview last week, but the likes of Kenny Omega, KUSHIDA, the Young Bucks and RPG Vice put on some amazing action. The Bullet Club (Anderson & Gallows) and The Kingdom tore each other apart. KUSHIDA stole one title from the collected Bullet Club, but Anderson & Gallows retrieved the Heavyweight tag belt.

The battle between Hiroshi Tanahashi and Toru Yano proved to be a great start to the main event portion of the show. Tanahashi can be best described as the Japanese John Cena, but unlike Cena his constant victories do not turn off nearly as many fans. He can best be compared to the current US champion Cena. He's a guy you can depend on for great matches, but don't expect him to lose much. He didn't here either, but the number of false finishes between Tanahashi and Yano was impressive.

Japanese artist Kyobashi+ did this amazing
illustration of red ninja Nakamura.

The semi-main event for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship went about as I expected. Hirooki Goto seems cemented into his new position as the successor for the title, but that didn't mean Shinsuke Nakamura was going quietly into the night. Nakamura brought it to the man that took his title and Goto answered in kind. With stiff chops and kicks, this one echoed through the arena. But in the end, Nakamura seems ready to go back into IWGP Heavyweight title competition, so his loss here comes as no surprise.

The main event featured AJ Styles defending the aforementioned heavyweight belt against Kazuchika Okada. Every time these to men face off, a lot is made out of Okada's time as Okato in TNA, where he was barely a jobber to guys like Styles. But as "The Rainmaker", Okada is now an amazing star. Everything about this fight was designed to keep fans on the edge of their seats, starting with the Bullet Club's ejection from ringside about five minutes in.

While Styles vs. Okada isn't a new encounter, this was easily their best match. Copyright: NJPW.

While Styles isn't used to going it alone, everyone knows how good "The Phenomenal One" is in the ring. He didn't lose a step against Okada, but without outside interference, he had to deal with multiple surges from "The Rainmaker". But no matter what he threw at Styles, Okada couldn't seem to get the champion down. Okada's impressive clothesline, also called the Rainmaker, has never failed in winning him a match immediately after its use. But somehow Styles resisted two of the devastating blows in the battle. Ultimately it would be a third strike with the Rainmaker that he just could not answer. As the 63rd IWGP Heavyweight champion, he now enters his third reign with the title.

New Japan put on an amazing show on Sunday, but they are not a company that rests on their laurels. Their biggest tournament of the year, the round robin G1 Climax, kicks off in less than two weeks. I will have a rundown of the competitors in what should be an amazing three weeks in the days ahead.