G1 Climax 24 - Day 4

G1 Climax 24

(2014/7/26)

1.      Block A: Bad Luck Fale vs. Satoshi Kojima

Quite similar to Fale/Nagata, a good little match with a seasoned veteran trying to hang with younger generation, although Fale detractors will probably dislike it. Kojima is aging tremendously well. He’s also crazy over.

***

2.      Block A: Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Shelton Benjamin

The match had its moments, such as the opening minute or two, and another cool finishing combo by Shelton, but overall – it was bad and kind of dull. What killed it for me was Davey Boy completely ignoring the face that Shelton had him in ankle lock for about a minute, totally bad and ignorant selling right there. But Shelton is 4-0 now, bitches!

bad

3.      Block B: Minoru Suzuki vs. vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan

Two veterans exchanging stiff blows and holds, but MiSu has to take it one step further considering he’s 0-2. Good match with even better finish. Tenzan overdelivers once again.

***1/4

4.      Block B: Toru Yano vs. Hirooki Goto

Goto is 3-0 going into this one, but can he survive Yano’s gaga shenanigans? Beware of low blows, Goto. Too short to rate.

N/A

5.      Block A: Tomohiro Ishii vs. Tomoaki Honma

Sweet fucking Jesus, this was insane. Ishii’s head bouncing up and down during that DDT… it was almost too much. There were tons of manliness, roughness, excitement and drama, these two fucking killed each other. Motherfucker! I can’t even imagine the physical toll something like this takes on their bodies, mad fucking respect for both warriors.

****3/4

6.      Block B: Lance Archer vs. Togi Makabe

Makabe’s injured jaw came into play in all three previous matches, but strangely, not in this one. Shame, because the match needed more color, mos def. Decent, but totally forgettable.

**1/2

7.      Block A: Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Yuji Nagata

Nagata’s having a corking veteran year, he stepped the fuck up here, an excellent veteran underdog performance, he held nothing back against Shinsuke, very stiff stuff. The finishing stretch was neat.

***3/4

8.      Block B: AJ Styles vs. Tetsuya Naito

This match should be considered an instant classic, it blew my fucking mind, man. Never thought I’d witness AJ digging out his inner Stan Hansen and Terry Funk in a pro-wrestling match. LOVED IT. Seriously, he was THAT phenomenal. Naito’s carved forehead came into play big time, and AJ took an enormous advantage on it, it was fantastic, such a tremendous heel performance for AJ, really helped to put Naito over with constant cut-offs every time he attempts a heroic comeback. I reckon this performance, this match right here did wonders for Naito. And you know what the best thing is? They didn’t even blow all of their load, there’s a lot of room for a potential rematch that could get full fucking boat. This was crazy good.

****3/4

9.      Block B: Karl Anderson vs. Kazuchika Okada

Karl is 0-3, Okada is 3-0 going into the match. Naturally, Karl is trying to take as many shortcuts as possible, which bring big heel heat on him, and Okada was crazy over already. Pretty good back-and-forth stuff some really nasty smacks thrown around, i.e. Okada’s head-sweeping dropkick. The last minute was buggy with all them counters, which has become a very positive trend in Karl Anderson matches.

***1/2

10.  Block A: Katsuyori Shibata vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi

Now, I don’t know how many of you know the backstory for this match, but nvm, it’s basically two dudes hating (or strongly disliking at least) each other for various reasons, and each dude hates other dude’s puroresu with passion. And of course it comes into play for the whole duration of the match, I could list you so many situations and details that were grandiose, but it’d be kind of futile, I’ll just say the match was fucking great, with many heavy smacks thrown around, and contains quite possibly the greatest post-match selling in a VERY long time.

****1/4

The event had a hiccup or two, but who fucking cares when we got THOSE matches?!