#g1special

NJPW G1 SPECIAL in USA Night 1 Review (Long Beach, CA. July 1st 2017)

Roppongi Vice, Will Ospreay & The Briscoes vs. The Young Bucks, Marty Scurll, Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi ***½

Jushin Thunder Liger, Volador Jr., Dragon Lee & Titan vs. Hiromu Takahashi, SANADA, EVIL & BUSHI **¾

IWGP US Title Tournament Round 1: Jay Lethal vs. Hangman Page **½

IWGP US Title Tournament Round 1: Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Juice Robinson ***½+

 Hiroshi Tanahashi, KUSHIDA, David Finlay & Jay White vs. Billy Gunn, Yoshitatsu, Sho Tanaka & Yohei Komatsu **¼

IWGP Tag Title Match: Guerrillas Of Destiny © vs. War Machine ***½

IWGP US Title Tournament Round 1: Tetsuya Naito vs. Tomohiro Ishii ****¼

IWGP US Title Tournament Round 1: Kenny Omega vs. Michael Elgin ****½

IWGP Heavyweight Title Match: Kazuchika Okada vs. Cody ****1/4

Photos.

I thought this was a great little show that flew over and felt half of its 4 hour runtime. There wasn’t a bad match on the show and the second half was excellent. In happenings from a sold out Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center; Rocky Romero pinned Matt Jackson with a cradle to build momentum for RPG Vice’s Jr. Tag Title showdown with the Bucks tomorrow, in a white hot 10 man opener that was all-action. Hiromu Takahashi pinned Titan with the Time Bomb in a good but short (6:44) 8 man Lucha style match. An “injured” Jay Lethal advanced in the US Title Tournament with a win over Hangman Page in an average match, whilst ZSJ advanced over Juice Robinson via submission with his unpronounceable finisher in a great little match, the first of the evening. Sabre’s submission work is so great and Juice’s selling of the holds made them look excruciating. Jay White pinned Yoshitatsu to win a nothing 8 man tag that existed to build interest in Billy Gunn’s(!) challenge of Tana’s brand spanking new I.C. Title tomorrow.

After intermission, War Machine regained the IWGP Tag titles from G.O.D. in an action packed encounter that was turned into a no DQ Tornado match. Hanson and Rowe won after hitting Fall Out on Roa through a table, in something of a surprise. The US Title Tourney, and upsets, continued with Tomohiro Ishii somewhat surprisingly advancing over Tetsuya Naito in an excellent hard-hitter that featured some great action. Things were a bit shaky at times for whatever reason, but it didn’t matter as the intensity both guys brought made this the best thing on the show up to that point. The Stone Pitbull won after killing Naito with Lariats, a headbutt and the Vertical Drop Brainbuster in 15:51. These guys work tremendously together and always deliver nothing less than a great match every time out, and I’ll never not love their wars. Kenny Omega and Big Mike had the match of the night in the final tournament bout of the evening. This was fantastic stuff which the crowd were going crazy for. It built well and featured a load of crazy moves, including Elgin hitting a German Suplex on the apron, and scoring an unbelievably close near fall with a top rope Splash Mountain. Omega came back, annihilating Elgin with numerous V-Trigger knee strikes, before nailing a big reverse-rana and the match winning One Winged Angel at the 22:31 mark to advance. Tomorrows Tournament brackets are Ishii vs. Sabre Jr. and Omega taking on Jay Lethal, both of which should be interesting to say the least.

And in the main event, IWGP Heavyweight Champ Okada put his title on the line against current Ring Of Honor Champion; Cody. This was another excellent match, and most likely the best Cody match I’ve ever seen. It was at times very dramatic as, even though most of us didn’t really want to accept it, there was a very real chance Cody could leave with the title. At one point, after Cody ate a Rainmaker, Kenny Omega came out and threatened to throw in the towel, in a play on what went down at Dominion. The Young Bucks came out and tried to stop him, at which point he tried to convince Brandi, Cody’s wife to throw in the towel, seemingly in a play on what happened at Survivor Series 94. Cody fought back and threw the towel in Omega’s face, teasing dissension. Cody ducked a Rainmaker and hit a hard version of his own for a great near fall, then Okada hit Cody with his own Cross Rhodes. After some back and forth action and near falls, Cody went for the One Winged Angel right in front of Kenny, but Okada escaped, hit a jumping, twisting Tombstone, and then the match winning Rainmaker at 27:12. Okada cut a promo in English to close the show, whilst backstage Cody and Omega argued, further teasing that impending split. All in all, this was a really good show, obviously not on the level of a Wrestle Kingdom or Dominion, but it was never going to be, and its hard to say a show with matches as good as the final three here isn’t a great show.