G1 Climax Nights 8, 9 & 10 and Ernie Ladd Returns!
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Cubed Circle Newsletter 198 – G1 Climax Nights 8, 9 & 10 and Ernie Ladd Returns! In this week's newsletter we look at the next three nights of the 2015 G1 Climax, nights eight, nine, and 10, from Osaka, Nagoya, and Sendai respectively. Plus, Ben Carass looks at the April Fool's day 1982 of Mid-South TV featuring the return of Ernie Ladd, RAW from Monday, which was surprisingly good, and NXT from Wednesday! – Ryan Clingman, Cubed Circle Newsletter Editor NJPW G1 Climax 25 August 1st 2015 Night 8 Osaka Bodymaker Coliseum, Osaka, Kasai Ryan Clingman Satoshi Kojima (1-2) and Yujiro Takahashi (1-2) kicked the G1 portion of the show off. There was the standard Hall beat down on the floor with Yujiro distracting the referee awkwardly. Hall pulled the referee to the floor after Kojima landed a lariat that looked to be the finish. Kojima cleaned house, but took a low blow and the spinning fireman's carry side-slam in a match that went far longer than it needed. (* ¾) Karl Anderson (2-1) coming off of his first tournament loss to Ishii on night six battled Yuji Nagata (1-2). Anderson when working over the mid-section of Nagata did a cocky “Nagata! Nagata!” chant, which got some very light heat – I don't quite know if the majority of the audience knew what to make of it. Anderson slapped Nagata in the face repeatedly and saluted him, which allowed Nagata to fire back with a big knee to the gut. Nagata grabbed his Demon Armbar, which he hasn't won a high-profile match with in quite some time. Nagata sat up off of a gun stun landing a neckbreaker and enzuigiri. Anderson then popped up with a gun stun for the win. (***) The first truly intriguing match of the card was next with Michael Elgin (1-2) working Tomoaki Honma (0-3) in the battle of very over losers! Elgin for whatever reason began an “Elgin” chant. Honma “struggled” to lift Elgin before dropping him with a stiff backbreaker. A deadlift falcon arrow from the top rope got a very impressive reaction. Honma shot back with a headbutt, but missed the Kokeshi. A forearm and lariat battle followed, Honma kicked out of a huge lariat and Osaka rumbled. Honma broke Elgin's grip, and no sold a release German. Elgin picked Honma up out of a powerbomb and landed the buckle bomb into a sitout powerbomb for the win. (****) Next was one of the more exciting possible matches of the entire tournament with the return of Shinsuke Nakamura (1-2) from injury opposite CHAOS stablemate and bosom buddy, Tomohiro Ishii (2-1). Nakamura landed some leg kicks, but Ishii, being low to the ground, caught one and 1 retaliated with a forearm to the knee. They exchanged some stiff forearms, which Ishii neutralized with a headbutt. Nakamura landed a big knee, but was dropped with a power slam for a quick double down. Ishii utilized hard chops numerous times throughout the match. Coming off more or less equals in a strike battle, Nakamura dropped Ishii with a big knee to the gut and facebuster before attempting his first major Boma Ye of the match, which was swiftly countered. The finishing stretch was intense, with Ishii kicking out of several Boma Yes, including one on the mat, and Nakamura busting out his lariat counter from the 2014 G1 final. Nakamura pinned Ishii with a giant Boma Ye before holding his fallen comrade's hand on the mat. This match was somewhat disappointing, although through no fault of the men involved with Nakamura's arm injured. (*** ¾) Kazuchika Okada (3-0) faced Hirooki Goto (2-1) in our eighth night final. The match spilled to the outside fairly quickly, quite a lot quicker than I would have actually expected. The work was entertaining on the floor, however, with Goto lariating Okada over the barricade Foley style. Okada called for Goto to bring it with some strong chops. Goto began the lariat game with a couple that dropped Okada. There was a wonderfully timed roll-up battle with Okada kicking out of an attempted pin at amazingly close to three. Okada took a faceplant-style Shouten, but escaped from the Kai variant. Okada landed his mega German and went for the rainmaker, but was stopped with a headbutt to the face to chants of “Goto”. There was a fantastic, intricate exchange in the final stretch with Okada taking the Shouten Kai for the win in a finish that will set up a second champion versus champion match in the coming months – probably at Destruction in Kobe. (**** ¼) NJPW G1 Climax 25 August 2nd 2015 Night 9 Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium, Nagoya, Aichi Ryan Clingman Aichi is a relatively important location of New Japan, and they did have a multi-camera shoot tonight, but did not include commentary once more. Hiroyoshi Tenzan (1-3) and Kota Ibushi (2-2) were the opening match for the G1 Climax portion of the show. Tenzan was as slow as ever tonight, but took a large portion of the match. Ibushi has made a habit of stealing his opponent's moves, and everyone does the Mongolian chops on Tenzan, thus it was a given that we would see that spot here. Whilst that spot almost always gets booed, Ibushi is such a mega-babyface that Aichi simply popped for it and didn't boo Ibushi. Kota pinned Tenzan with a Phoenix Splash. (***) Bad Luck Fale (3-1) and Katsuyori Shibata (3-1) were up next in a battle for an eighth point. Shibata played an underdog similar to Naito on 2014, but instead of working over Fale's knees chose to respond to Fale's acts of strength and brutality with his standard offence. The match's biggest spot came at the finish when Fale went for the Bad Luck Fall, but was chocked out and met with a PK bringing Shibata his fourth victory in what has been his best G1 to date thus far, win-wise at least. (***) 2 AJ Styles (2-2) was set to face his Bullet Club underling, Doc Gallows (1-3), in the next A-block match. They did the “too sweet” sign before the match, but unlike in WWE or TNA where they would have teased a Finger-Poke of Doom or mounting dissension, these two simply began to work a pro-wrestling contest against one another. Gallows landed a big chokeslam on the apron and garnered the early advantage on Styles, working him over on the floor. Styles was the default babyface here, and he is talented and well-respected enough that he fit that role with this audience well. “AJ Styles” chants rang out during a headlock spot, which I sadly mistook for the dreaded misplaced “this is awesome” chant. They had a fantastic strike exchange in one of the more memorable Gallows' moments of the entire G1. Styles pinned Gallows with a Bloody Sunday in a finish that couldn't have really gone any other way. Gallows and Styles did the “too sweet” out on the floor in the post match. I very much enjoy Gallows as a character. (*** ¼) Tetsuya Naito (3-1) was set to undress in front of Togi Makabe in the fourth A-block match of the night. The match was met to get underway, but Naito stalled, which got some good heat. Like Shibata, Makabe was not entirely willing to accept this, but unlike Shibata, Naito sent Makabe to the outside leaving the ring free for him to undress dramatically. Naito tied new rival, Red Shoes, to the outside and began his work in-ring. Makabe, unlike most everyone else in the G1 it would seem, remains true to himself, yelling expletives instead of the name of his opponent. They traded some counters, and Naito bumped all over for Makabe. Makabe, as you would have expected laid it in, and seemed to nearly kill Naito when shoving his head into the post – busting him open hardway and sending saliva flying everywhere. Makabe pinned Naito with the King Kong Knee following a spider suplex. Naito's cut was terribly gruesome, and whilst it helped get him and the tournament over, the hardway was unnecessary, and generally quite worrying given our knowledge of concussions. Regardless, a bloodied Naito, smiled, and laid Jay White out in the post match. The Google Translation of the Yahoo Sports Japan headline for this match was "Makabe is blow up the Naito", which is actually astonishingly accurate.(*** ½) 3 Hiroshi Tanahashi (2-2) and current rival, Toru Yano (1-3), was our strange main event pairing. Everything you would expect from a Yano/Tanahashi match followed – nothing else. Yano escaped the top rope high-fly-flow by rolling under the ring. There was a tremendous teased double count out spot, which had me actually believing that Tanahashi may have been booked to go to a draw with YTR of all people. Tanahashi almost triple suplexed Yano and Red Shoes with Yano holding onto Red Shoes, who was promptly pushed into the top rope halting the HFF. This began to look like a mid-80s Crockett show with Yano busted open again, before taking a high-fly-flow for the win. There was a nice touch in the post match with Tanahashi holding three fingers up as Shibata had done earlier with four after his match. (***) NJPW G1 Climax 25 August 4th 2015 Night 10 Sendai Sun Plaza Hall, Sendai, Miyagi Ryan Clingman As in night 10 there was a multi-camera set-up here, but no audible commentary.