The hardest tournament in professional wrestling is here! Yes, it's the infamous G1 Climax tournament began its first day with a bang as this years Block A all wrestled their first matches. Wrestling and Japanesse greats have won this tournament; Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, Shinsuke Nakamura and the reigning IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada.
New Japan Pro Wrestling: G1 Climax 2015 Day 1
Hokkaido Prefectural Sports Center, Hokkaido Kitayell
Monday, 20th July 2015
First of all we need to establish something. I know next to little about NJPW. I've seen matches before but this is the first real event I've watched. I was planning to watch Dominion, but a busy schedule put a stop to that. However! I don't think I'll miss to many event anymore. The NJPW crowd is unbelievably good - the wrestling is unbelievably good.
I suppose we should start with the main attraction of the day - the start of Block A. Now, if you look at how I rated each match of the night you'll see that the first four matches were rated higher than most of the Block A matches - apart from AJ Styles vs. Katsuyori Shabita and the main event match between Hiroshi Tanahasi. That's slightly disappointing as you'd expect the main attraction to be better than the normal first couple of matches. All that said though, it's rare to see a show, in my eyes anyway, that doesn't come with a poor match. The card was strong, every match was either good or above average - the only problem was there was no stand out match. Either way, that isn't a major issue.
One aspect of NJPW that I believe to be amazing is the usage of stables. In fact, the reason I decided to watch NJPW is because of the hottest stable in pro wrestling today; Bullet Club. Despite there popularity, it was a bad night for them as they fell victim to CHAOS, another rival stable. Leader and one half of the IWGP Tag Team champions Karl Anderson teamed with fellow Bullet Club member Tama Tonga in a losing effort against Shinsuke Nakamura and YOSHI-HASHI who were representing CHAOS.
Two other Bullet Club members teamed together when Cody Hall and Yujiro Takahashi took to the famous ring. They emulated the same fate of Anderson and Tonga, losing to Captain New Japan and the IWGP Intercontinental champion and former G1 Winner Hirooki Goto.
So what else for Bullet Club? Three other members fought in Block A, which on a side note means they'll have to face off against eachother. Firstly, Anderson tag team partner Doc Gallows faced Hiroyoshi Tenzen and lost; the 'underboss' Bad Luke Fale also lost to Tetsyua Naito to further Bullet Clubs hard night.
It wasn't to bad for one member - AJ Styles picked up two points when defeating Katsuyori Shibata; a nice way to mend the pain of losing the IWGP Heavyweight title recently.
All in all, the show was very strong and a great way to kick off the hardest tournament, and this year the largest ever tournament in professional wrestling. The future of this tournament looks very good with Block B starting on Thursday. Ready for an early prediction? AJ Styles.
MATCH CARD AND RAITINGS:
1. Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask, Yohei Komatsu and Yuji Nagata def. David Finlay, Jay White, Mascara Dorada and Tomoaki Honma [3/5]
2. Captain New Japan and Hirooki Goto def. Bullet Club (Cody Hall and Yujiro Takahahsi) [3/5]
3. CHAOS (Shinsuke Nakamura and YOSHI-HASHI) def. Bullet Club (Karl Anderson and Tama Tonga) [3/5]
4. CHAOS (Gedo, Tomohiro Ishii and Kazuchika Okada) def. Michael Elgin, Ryusuki Taguchi, Satoshi Kojima [3/5]
5. G1 Climax Block A: Hiroyoshi Tenzen def. Doc Gallows [2.5/5]
6. G1 Climax Block A: Togi Makabe def. Toru Yano [2.5/5]
7. G1 Climax Block A: Tetsuya Naito def. Bad Luck Fale [2.5/5]
8. G1 Climax Block A: AJ Styles def. Katsuyori Shibata [3/5]
9. G1 Climax Block A: Hiroshi Tanahasi def. Kota Ibushi [3/5]
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