G1 Climax 27 FINAL Recommended Viewing
By: Matt Ederer
NIGHT 1 — NIGHT 2 — NIGHT 3 — NIGHT 4 — NIGHT 5 — NIGHT 6 — NIGHT 7 — NIGHT 8 — NIGHT 9 — NIGHT 10 — NIGHT 11 — NIGHT 12 — NIGHT 13 — NIGHT 14 — NIGHT 15 -NIGHT 16 — A BLOCK FINALS — B BLOCK FINALS
Big Mike Elgin out here tweeting what we are all thinking.
So after 19 days and 90 + wrestling matches:
And I gotta say, I’m very glad that I stuck this out. Thanks to HTCwrestling for giving these articles a few extra eyeballs, and many thanks to my legions of loyal reader.
We’re just gonna talk the final show today. Stay tuned for a big-picture wrap up post later in the week, where I will rank all 91 (!) G1 matches, name a tournament MVP, a most improved, a Vezina and Jack Adams trophy winner, and all that fun stuff.
G1 CLIMAX 27 FINAL HOLY F WE MADE IT EDITION
KUSHIDA, Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask IV & Hirai Kawato vs. Taka Michinoku, El Desperado, Taichi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru
Love NJPW’s slow integration of the young boys into the main roster. Kawato gets a chance to shine as the veterans cheer him on, but in the end he gets his lunch eaten by the mean heel bullies.
2.5*
Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi vs. Guerrillas of Destiny
Nagata and Nakanishi make a fun little old dad tag team. I would be OK with them getting a quick IWGP tag title run. Actually, is Hiroyoshi Tenzan ready to retire yet? I would almost rather see Kojima and Nagata together as a team instead.
Not much to this. Below average tag. @ me when the GOD finally get signed to WWE.
(wow that was the hippest sentence I’ve ever written)
2*
Togi Makabe & David Finlay vs. Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI
David Finlay vs Yoshi-Hashi in a “something about these guys bugs me, can’t put my finger on what” on a pole match. When Makabe and Goto are in a tag match and they’re actually the ones you‘re waiting to see tag in, something is not right.
An average tag team match. Far from bad. Nothing legendary.
2.5*
Juice Robinson, Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens
Slightly below average tag, one that really picked up when Juice was in. Tenzan looks like he’s at the end of his tank. As I said a few matches ago, wouldn’t mind seeing Kojima and Nagata team up.
2*
Young Bucks v Ryusuke Taguchi & Ricochet — IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Titles
Rysuke Taguchi is a half jokey, half serious wrestler, kind of like if you cloned an Eddy Guerrero/Santino hybrid in a lab and gave it Naomi’s WWE 2k17 moveset. Having scouted the booty-based offense of Taguchi, The Young Bucks did what they could to neutralize the booty (typing a lot of absurd things tonight) via atomic drops and superkicks to the ass. THIS IS WRESTLING CLAP-CLAP-*JUMPS IN LAKE*
Good match, the typical mix of strong fast-paced work and comedic hijinks that we have come to expect from the Young Bucks. Actually, they are kind of like the Midnight Express used to be back in the day. Strange that Jim Cornette hates them so much.
Good match with a nice, decisive finish. Taguchi is what he is, you have to either accept it coming in or not. I accepted it coming in. This is the kind of match that will work for me once. The first time, this was good. The first time. I now have absolutely zero interest in seeing the Young Bucks and Taguchi doing wacky arse spots anymore. I’ve seen it.
But it worked the first time.
4*
THE RETURN OF KATSUYORI SHIBATA
Listen to the crowd when his music hits. Look at the emotion on the faces of the people, many of whom unable/unwilling to hold back tears. Listen to the announcers’ real shock and awe. Just please watch that thing.
A super brief version of what’s going on here: Katsuyori Shibata is a no-nonsense, ass kicking, fan favourite wrestler who badly hurt himself this year. Shibata is such a serious wrestler that his nickname is “The Wrestler”. The Wrestler Katsuyori Shibata very likely (like, 95%) ended his own career via headbutting his opponents too hard, specifically one opponent in one match. Shibata suffered a subdural hematoma , literally a life-threatening head injury, after his match this year with Kazuchika Okada. Shibata has not been seen since, and in fact only recently did it come out that he’s even been released from the hospital.
Shibata, smiling for literally the first time in his entire career, grabbed a mic and exclaimed that he was alive, to the shock and adulation of the crowd.
Whether The Wrestler should come back, or even be allowed to, is a different debate. This was an incredible, moving moment. People were visibly crying in the stands. Between Yugi Nagata’s emotional farewell to the G1, and Shibata’s emotional first few steps back into a ring, this is twice in three days that some silly pro wrestling from Japan almost moves me to tears.
Check that moment out.
War Machine v Cody & Hangman Page — IWGP Tag Titles
Really great match that just went a shade too long. I thought the War Machine moonsault would have been a perfect capper to the BC’s weekend-long story of trying moonsaults and missing every time. Unfortunately, there was some awkward interference and a few awkward, needless minutes after the beautiful and logical conclusion to the Bullet Club’s weekend.
Too cute, should have ended about 3–4 minutes before it did, but was well on it’s way to being over 4* before the finish. One of the better Cody matches since he’s left WWE.
The post match shenangians were the story here however, as Harry Smith and Lance Archer (aka Jr. Bulldog and The Tramp Stamp, but actually aka the Killer Elite Squad) came back, killed everyone, and shouted a lot of mean guy wrestler things. Ehhh, the KES are OK. I’ll take it.
4*
Minoru Suzuki, Zack Sabre Jr. & Takashi Iizuka vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kota Ibushi & Michael Elgin
Callis: “we’re not gonna have any Young Lions left Kevin”.
Kelly: “Or chairs”.
Tanahashi and ZSJ did some really great things. Iizuki is slow and crazy. Minoru Suzuki hurt a bunch of young people. The cosmic ballet rolls on.
Really liked this match as NJPW tags go. Five of the six guys in this one are really good, and Iizuka wasn’t in very often. We got a very good match here, a surprising result, and have now clearly set up two title programs for the rest of the year, in ZSJ vs Tanahashi, and Elgin vs Suzuki. Both should be fabulous.
3.75*
Kazuchika Okada, Gedo, Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii vs. EVIL, SANADA, Hiromu Takahashi & BUSHI
Not much to say about this one. Average match, kinda Gedo heavy, but they got from A to B. We have obviously set up Okada’s next challenger to be EVIL, which I actually think is an amazing idea for a number of reasons. Okada isn’t going to lose the title anyway, so you might as well get a fresh matchup with a new guy. Having said that, this particular new guy is insane. He was the first guy to beat Okada in almost a full year, and has now twice almost killed Okada by dropping him on his head on a pile of chairs.
If this G1 has shown us anything, it’s that EVIL is a threat to win on any given night, because he is so fucking EVIL. Perfect guy to pair up with Okada for the short-term future.
2.5*
Tetsuya Naito vs. Kenny Omega
Here we go.
The most impressive thing about that match is that every little thing here felt a step above the industry standard. Instead of using a snapmare to transition to a new sequence, they used a german suplex. Instead of slowly walking to the apron to do a move, Naito hit Omega with a neckbreaker from the ring *to* the apron, and then hit the actual neckbreaker off the apron. Instead of doing dives off the apron, they were doing dives off the guardrail (typical Omega spot, but you feel me). The piledrivers were insane and amazing and a treat to behold. The first piledriver, the one on the outside, was done in such a way that it was 1000% completely safe (for the piledrivee Omega that is, maybe not the piledriverer, Naito). There was no actual impact anywhere for Omega. The second piledriver, the one in the tweet up there, was just a masterful piece of work by Kenny Omega. On the second angle on the replay, you see that Omega, conscious that Naito isn’t fully balanced in his arms, takes the brunt of Naitos’s weight onto his legs and side. The second view of that move is actually much better than the first, though the first looks more painful. On the second angle, you can see the fear in the eyes of Naito, “oh fuck oh fuck oh fuuuuuuck” before Kenny protects him completely at the last possible second. Just nuts.
The work between these two guys is too crisp. Impossibly crisp. This is the kind of match that is so “advanced” shall we say, that it’s extremely easy to miss a) how dangerous everything they are doing is, and B) just how incredibly perfect and important each one move is, not just execution wise but as part of the bigger picture. For example:
I almost completely forgot about this insane DDT thing. This move set up an equally insane top rope reversal sequence. What even was this? Was it a botch? Was it a planned move? How did it not literally kill Tetsuya Naito? It looked like the post impaled the guy. But did the post even hit him? I don’t know, man.
Rather than saying “X is the best wrestler alive right now”, which is super subjective and doesn’t really tell us much, I would like to posit an idea to you this way: sometimes, wrestlers hit a zone. Call it the Savage Zone, because a) savage is a fun hip word to use and b) Randy Savage lived inside the zone, and had a 25 acre estate on it that he could return to whenever he saw fit.
HBK and Bret Hart in 1997 were in the zone. CM Punk in 2011 was in the zone. 1989 Ric Flair spent a full year in the zone. Young & brash Rocky, Pissed off & hungry Austin, brand-new white hot white rappin’ John Cena. These are guys who have a noticeable, intangible buzz around them, and were the talk of the industry at the time.
NJPW in 2017 has three guys who are absolutely in the zone, in Tetsuya Naito, Kenny Omega and the IWGP champ Kazuchika Okada. Not to mention a secret 4th, in Tanahashi, who can still get to the zone on any given night.
Simply put, the G1 Climax 27 was the best wrestling tournament ever, capped off by two of the best wrestlers alive today having a state-of-the-art match in the final. I am positive that someone out there is already arguing that this is the best match of all time, and it’s not a ridiculous argument.
If you care about professional wrestling even a little bit, go and watch this match. Match of the tournament, and a strong contender for match of the year, which (in this incredible year) makes it at least in the conversation as one of the greatest matches in the history of the business.
5*
Thanks for reading everybody, super appreciate it, it’s been a really fun month. I will have a full G1 Climax wrap up post coming later in the week.
