After taking apart the A Block of this year’s G1 Climax
tournament, let’s look at how the B Block shapes up. In comparison there are
less sharp distinction between combatants and more of a mid range of wrestlers
both technically sound and with hard hitting offense. You are not likely to see
a high flyer take on a giant like you might in the A Block, but you will see a
lot more evenly matched bouts. CHAOS has a strong presence in the B Block,
which will likely produce matches with a lot of flair but camaraderie
pervading. B Block is also host to some highly pedigreed combatants, including
IWGP Heavyweight champion and winner of last year’s G1 Kazuchika Okada, former
Intercontinental Champion and finalist in last year’s G1 Shinsuke Nakamura,
current Intercontinental Champion Hiroki Goto. You can also find some boasting
points around Bullet Club mainstay and one half of the current IWGP Heavyweight
Tag Team champions Karl Anderson, and former Never champion Tomohiro Ishii.
Veterans with plenty of past championship runs to their name, Yuji Nagata and
Satoshi Kojima make less likely candidates for wining the tournament but can
still hold their own against anyone in their path. Tomoaki Honma exploded onto
the G1 scene last year, and though he went without a victory he kept up with
everyone he competed with and looks to make a stonger showing this time around.
Newcomer to the tournament, Michael Elgin brings his experience in Ring of
Honor to shake up the otherwise familiar tournament landscape, and finally
Yujiro Takashi represents the Bullet Club more known for his smarminess and
underhandedness than anything, unlikely to win, but full of potential to spoil
things for others on the slate.
I’ll run down the matches of the competitors in the tournament
thus far, starting with the participants holding the most prominence, and then
go over my expectations for the tournament as I did after looking at the A
Block.
Kazuchika Okada:
Okada started the year on a down note, having just lost to Hiroshi Tanahashi in
the main event of Wrestle Kingdom in a match that many believed would cement
his top spot in the company. But the rest of the year ended up being a come
back story as he the psyched out ‘Rainmaker’ got over his insecurities and
emerged victorious from a back and forth program with ‘Bad Luck’ Fale. He went
on to step to and defeat AJ Styles at Dominion to regain the Heavyweight title,
which he had lost to AJ in the previous year. Appearing at the top of his game,
a win in the tournament again would leave him with all the cards in the
company.
Match 1: Okada
defeated Michael Elgin with the Rainmaker lariat.
Match 2: Okada
defeated Tomoaki Honma with the Rainmaker lariat.
Match 3: Okada defeated
Satoshi Kojima with the Rainmaker lariat.
Match 4: Okada
lost to Hiroki Goto who won with the Shouten Kai.
Match 5: Okada
lost to Karl Anderson who won with the Gun Stun,
Match 6: Okada
defeated Tomohiro Ishii with the Rainmaker lariat.
Total points: 8
Shinsuke Nakamura: Nakamura,
my prediction for the winner of the B Block, has had a dynamic ride, having
perhaps the biggest amount of crowd support in his native Japan and absolutely
getting the largest pops during the rare US appearances he has made with the
ROH promotion. He had a long run with the Intercontinental championship until
recently dropping the title to Hiroki Goto and failing to recapture it. The
next title for him to recapture would seem to be the Heavyweight championship,
and there is little doubt he is in the upper echelon of wrestlers who could
convincingly run with it.
Match 1: Nakamura
lost to Karl Anderson after being hit with the Gun Stun.
Match 2: Nakamura
defeated Yuji Nagata with the bomaye knee
strike
Match 3: Nakamura
forfeited to Michael Elgin due to injury.
Match 4: Nakamura
defeated Tomohiro Ishii with the bomaye
knee strike.
Match 5: Nakamura
defeated Hiroki Goto with an armbar submission.
Match 6: Nakamura
defeated Yujiro Takashi with the bomaye knee
strike.
Total points: 8
Hiroki Goto: Goto
has been at it for a while, not quite achieving top level victories but being
continually impressive with his unique hard hitting offensive maneuvers. Until
now, though, as he successfully defeated Nakamura for the Intercontinental
championship and retained it in a few rematches. Prior to that, Goto teamed
with Katsuyori Shibata to capture the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team titles from the Bullet Club’s Anderson and Gallows,
but lost them in a rematch that followed. Now, Goto is looking to prove that
the Intercontinental title is on par with the Heavyweight title, talking of
unifying the belts after achieving victory over Okada.
Match 1: Goto
defeated Yujiro Takashi with the shouten
kai.
Match 2: Goto
lost to Karl Anderson who hit the Gun Stun.
Match 3: Goto
defeated Tomoaki Honma with the shouten
kai.
Match 4: Goto
defeated Kazuchika Okada with the shouten
kai.
Match 5: Goto
lost to Shinsuke Nakamura (See Above).
Match 6: Goto defeated
Satoshi Kojima with the shouten kai.
Total points: 8
Karl Anderson: Anderson
has been one of the most impactful gaijin
wrestlers to join the NJPW roster in recent years. Instrumental in forming the
Bullet Club and arguably its leader now, Anderson currently holds half of the
IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team championship with fellow Biz Cliz member Doc Gallows.
They have lots the belts to the combination of Goto and Shibata, and Ring of
Honor’s Michael Bennet and Matt Taven of The Kingdom, but regained the titles
back from each of these foes. While singles gold has eluded Anderson for some
time, he seems to have the number of several top stars in New Japan and poses a
threat to all who face him.
Match 1: Anderson
defeated Shinsuke Nakamura with the Gun Stun.
Match 2: Anderson
defeated Goto Hiroki with the Gun Stun.
Match 3: Anderson
lost to Tomohiro Ishii in a hard hitting match after being leveled with a
lariat to the back of his head, and then being
hit with a Brainbuster.
Match 4: Anderson
defeated Yuji Nagata with the Gun Stun, after reversing an attempt at a Back
Drop Bomb by Nagata into the effective finisher for the 3 count.
Match 5: Anderson
defeated Kazuchika Okada with the Gun Stun.
Match 6: Anderson
defeated Tomoaki Honma, catching his kokeshi
Headbutt off the top rope and turning it into a Gun Stun for the pin fall
victory.
Total points: 8
Tomohiro Ishii: Ishii,
appropriately referred to as pitbull is known for his hard hitting style,
seeming to leave everything in the ring. Sometimes it feels as though his
matches have a dangerous number of suplexes and lariats, often times from the
turnbuckle. Ishii has had a challenging year, losing the Never Openweight
championship he held so proudly to Togi Makabe at Wrestle Kingdom. He regained
the title when Tomoaki Honma wrestled in an ill Makabe’s place, but has since
failed to recapture the title from Makabe in two rematches.
Match 1: Ishii
defeated Satoshi Kojima when he interrupted a flurry of forearms with a Head
Butt and then hit a Brainbuster for the pin fall victory.
Match 2: Ishii
defeated Yujiro after kicking out of everything the Biz Cliz playa could throw
at him, and hit a Brain buster for the pin and win.
Match 3: Ishii defeated
Karl Anderson with a Brainbuster.
Match 4: Ishii
lost to Shinsuke Nakamura after being hit by the bomaya knee strike.
Match 5: Ishii defeated
Yuji Nagata after the two went through an emotional and harsh looking exchange
of slaps, which Ishii ended with a vicious Headbutt. Ishii went on to nail a
Brain buster to pick up the pinfall victory.
Match 6: Ishii
losto Kazuchika Okada when he was hit by the Rainmaker lariat.
Total points: 8
----------------------------------------
A noticeable difference in the A Block and B Block results
is a lot more variation in the A Block whereas in B, there is steady solid, if
slightly more routine work. Wrestlers are hitting their main finishers to bring
most of the matches to an end.
There is also a lot less detail put into my accounts of what
happened here than with the A Block. There were extremely good spots in matches
and dramatic logical stories being told in ring, but the lack of range left a
lack of particular moments in matches getting as much going. Another factor,
which I should have assessed in the overview of the G1 is the occasional
appearance on NJPW World streams of shows broadcast without commentary and through
the lens of a single steady shot of the ring, or one or the other of these
alterations. The B Block started in this mode, causing those matches to have
much less of an impact. Hopefully World can limit the broadcasts of this
nature. While the lack of commentary is ok, the single static camera angle
often takes a lot of the intensity out of the matches.
There is a sense that the B Block has been undergoing alterations
on the fly on account of an injury undergone by Nakamura, which knocked him out
of his third round match with Elgin. Perhaps a testament to this year’s new
format, Nakamura was able to sit out an event that featured A Block tournament
matches and B Block participants in tag team openers. That plus a day off
between events could have helped Nakamura recover in time for the rest of the
tournament.
Like with the A Block, a tie between a few of the higher
tier wrestlers is forming, making it a close race and what will likely be a
race for points that comes down to the very last day before the finals.
I predict Nakamura will win the B Block, taking a victory
against Okada in a match that would send either of them to the finals. This
would find Nakamura returning the favor for his loss to Okada in last year’s
finals.
I return to this visual I saw that suggests a Top 3 in the
company: Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi, and Shinsuke Nakamura. I think if
you add the possibly less marketable in Japan’s mainstream, yet still integral
presence of AJ Styles and you have a main event picture for the big Wrestle
Kingdom show. Styles VS Nakamura would be an intriguing new match up, but I
think the tried and true lock up between Okada and Tanahashi is begging for a
sequel. That’s why I see Nakamura joining Tanahashi in the finals, and
Tanahashi going on to win and challenge Okada to contest him for the IWGP
Heavyweight Championship on the biggest show of the year.
What do you think?
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