Night five of the G1 took place this morning at Machida City Gym in Tokyo, featuring a big battle between Kota Ibushi and Tomohiro Ishii, as well as a scrap pitting Hirooki Goto and Togi Makabe against one another.
Prelim matches —
– Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan defeated Michael Elgin & Katsuya Kitamura when Kojima pinned Kitamura with a lariat.
– Minoru Suzuki, El Desperado & Taichi defeated Juice Robinson, David Finlay & Hirai Kawato when Desperado pinned Kawato with La Guitarra de Angel.
– EVIL & Hiromu Takahashi defeated Tama Tonga & Chase Owens when EVIL submitted Owens with the Banshee Muzzle. Takahashi has coped with the loss of Daryl by carrying what the announcers described as an invisible Daryl.
– Kenny Omega & Yujiro Takahashi defeated Toru Yano & Jado when Takahashi pinned Jado with the Pimp Juice DDT.
– SANADA & BUSHI defeated Kazuchika Okada & Gedo when BUSHI pinned Gedo with the MX.
A Block matches —
Zack Sabre Jr. defeated YOSHI-HASHI
Desperado grabbed YOSHI-HASHI’s foot early, which allowed Sabre to take control and work on YH’s arm. Sabre continued to work over YH until YOSHI-HASHI finally hit the headhunter neckbreaker.
YOSHI-HASHI hit a jackknife powerbomb and took out Desperado as he went for his senton, but Sabre got his feet up. Sabre followed with a penalty kick. He trapped YH’s bad arm in an armlock, but YH managed to get to the ropes.
Sabre trapped him in another armbar, then transitioned into the Octopus stretch for the submission. Good match.
Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated Yuji Nagata
This was a great match. The crowd was super into it, which added a lot. A simple, but great back-and-forth type of match.
Tanahashi took him down early and applied a figure four leglock. After a struggle, Nagata turned it around, only for Tanahashi to reverse it back.
Nagata got to the ropes as Tanahashi let go. After a striking battle, Tanahashi looked for the slingblade, but Nagata grabbed him. Tanahashi responded with a German suplex. Nagata trapped Tanahashi’s arms and did the white eyes armbar, then took him to the corner and unleashed a big superplex, but Tanahashi kicked out.
A brainbuster immediately after that also just got two. Tanahashi countered a back suplex attempt into a crossbody. He hit the slingblade and went for the High Fly Flow, but Nagata met him up at the top as the two battled. Tanahashi headbutted him and hit the High Fly Flow, then went to another corner and hit a second one for the win.
Bad Luck Fale defeated Tetsuya Naito
Naito took out Fale early by dropkicking him out of the ring as he made his way in, but it quickly became Fale’s match as he dominated Naito with big power spots. Naito tried to knock Fale off his feet and failed a number of times until finally taking him down with a shoulder tackle.
Naito followed with a Destino attempt, but Fale quickly blocked it and got the advantage. Fale went for the Grenade, but Naito countered with a DDT. Fale quickly shot back with another Grenade attempt, this time succeeding, then hit the Bad Luck Fall for the win.
This was fine, but not to the standard of other G1 matches so far as it was a lot of nothing.
Kota Ibushi defeated Tomohiro Ishii
They had a really good match. The crowd tonight was great, and added a ton to the match. Ibushi’s strikes in particular felt and sounded awesome every time they connected.
It started off hot with some quick exchanges. Ibushi hit a suplex, but Ishii immediately got up, only for Ibushi to dropkick him.
They did a series of spots where they would not sell their opponent’s offense until their opponent fired back with shots. They did this a few times until Ibushi wiped out Ishii. The latter immediately fired up as they exchanged more wild spots until Ibushi hit him with a fierce clothesline.
Ishii continued to mount offense, hitting a sliding D. Ibushi struck him with huge kicks to the head, and after a series of big time offense, planted Ishii with a German suplex bridge. He followed that with the press powerbomb for the win.
Togi Makabe defeated Hirooki Goto
Another great match with plenty of heat. This is Makabe’s hometown, so there were plenty of reasons for people to get into him, and also why it was probably the main event. Makabe also actually came out to “Immigrant Song,” so I guess they unmuted his theme for the night.
This immediately became a brawl with Goto and Makabe battling around the ring. Goto gained the advantage by throwing Makabe into the barricades.
Makabe struck back and they exchanged back and forth until Goto hit him with the ushigiroshi. He tried for the GTR, but Makabe countered with a German suplex. He unleashed two big lariats, then tried to follow with the King Kong knee drop, but Goto got out of the way.
Goto fired back, hitting a penalty kick and locking in a sleeper. They battled on the top rope, where Makabe got the advantage, taking out Goto and hitting the King Kong knee drop. He followed with the kneeling powerbomb, but Goto kicked out. Makabe took him to the corner and, after a struggle, hit the Spider suplex and the King Kong knee drop for the win.
Makabe cut a promo to end the show. I don’t think there was anything off-the-walls awesome on this show, but every match with the exception of Fale/Naito delivered, so the show overall is worth going out of your way to watch, especially the last two matches and Nagata/Tanahashi.
Current standings —
A Block:
Tetsuya Naito — 4
Hirooki Goto — 4
Zack Sabre Jr. — 4
Kota Ibushi — 4
Bad Luck Fale — 4
Hiroshi Tanahashi — 4
Togi Makabe — 2
YOSHI-HASHI — 2
Tomohiro Ishii — 2
Yuji Nagata — 0
B Block:
Kenny Omega — 4
Kazuchika Okada — 4
Tama Tonga — 2
SANADA — 2
Juice Robinson — 2
EVIL — 2
Toru Yano — 2
Minoru Suzuki — 2
Michael Elgin — 0
Satoshi Kojima — 0