G1 Climax 24 - Day 11

G1 Climax 24

(2014/8/8)

1.      Block A: Shelton Benjamin vs. Tomoaki Honma

Honma is 0-9, and Benjamin is on the five match losing streak, so both guys want that W, desperately. Can Honma finally score the big one? Good match, but the weakest for Honma thus far, things are getting repetitive at some points, and it just shows what a tremendous wrestler Honma is, when he’s still able to extract good stuff out of such a limited and pre-predetermined situation.

***

2.      Block B: Yujiro Takahashi vs. Toru Yano

I get it, you’re both cheaters, smashing. Next, please!

bad

3.      Block B: Lance Archer vs. Hirooki Goto

Good little match with Archer being a solid aggressor, and Goto doing what he does good lately – working from beneath.

***1/4

4.      Block B: Karl Anderson vs. Tetsuya Naito

Very good match, almost borderline great, swell back-and-forth stuff with the KILLER finish. I’m not a fan of a result here, but waddaya gonna do.

***3/4

5.      Block A: Tomohiro Ishii vs. Yuji Nagata

Ishii’s working with a separated and heavily taped shoulder here. Now, Nagata is not a dick, he doesn’t really want to exploit it, but he’s also old school, and just can’t resist it sometimes. Ishii sells it like he’s been ripped apart by lions, obviously, dude’s presentation is just fucking sublime. These two bruisers had some really good and insanely stiff matches in the past, but that was mostly Nagata raping poor Ishii, but it’s different now, Ishii’s developed into a reliable and super tough upper midcarder, while Nagata’s working as a veteran. The story writes itself, basically, there are many ubercool moments in this one, highlighted by Nagata’s “motherfucker, I fucking INVENTED slaps!” moment. Fantastic match.

****1/2

6.      Block A: Doc Gallows vs. Katsuyori Shibata

Short and sweet brawl, yet another Doc Gallows match I enjoyed. Plus, he went over, so you can imagine my joys. Doc might be the most underappreciated wrestler of the tournament, honestly. Looks like gaijin villains are Shibata’s kryptonite.

***1/2

7.      Block A: Bad Luck Fale vs. vs. Shinsuke Nakamura

Not as good as their Dominion title match, and definitely not as good as their New Japan Cup match. Now, for the last third or so, shit was tight there, but the opening portions were kind of mediocre, and the middle dragged at times. Still, there were some really cool, exciting things out there that made for a good match overall.

***1/4

8.      Block B: AJ Styles vs. Togi Makabe

Extremely basic and very disappointing, tbf, and I expected many big things from this one. Good thing was Styles working on Makabe’s injured jaw, hell Styles was good in general, it’s just that they didn’t really click, plus Makabe’s execution was heavily flawed at times, and could lead to heavy injuries on AJ. Solid match, but nothing more, the weakest for AJ in this G1, and it was none of his fault.

**3/4

9.      Block A: Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi

Such a fine match right here, excellent pace and timing throughout it, nice matwork at the beginning, cool counters and transition later, and because Tanahashi won the previous two matches with roll-up variations, there were two nifty false finishes in the climax. The finish was very surprising, probably the biggest win for DBSJ.

***3/4

10.  Block B: Minoru Suzuki vs. Kazuchika Okada

I’m tired right now, as we speak. Just look at that rating, I hope it tells the entire story. And I feel as if writing anything more than “what a phenomenal match” would make me sound like a pretentious hippie. Excellent pro-wrestling contest, tons of merriment everywhere.

****3/4

Two bloody excellent matches and many good ones, it was a lot of fun. The show had a very tough crowd, though, but that’s always the case with Yokohama people.