Welcome to WrestlingObserver.com’s live coverage of NJPW G1 Climax 2015.
We’re looking for your thoughts on tonight’s show, as well as the previous two nights at Sumo Hall, so you can send a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match for each show to [email protected]
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Shinsuke Nakamura for the G-1 Climax headlies, Check out our coverage from the last 2 days: NJPW G1 Climax Tournament 8-15 live results: Okada vs. Nakamura; B block winner to be decided and NJPW G1 Climax Tournament 8-14 live results: Styles vs. Tanahashi to determine A Block winner
Coverage by Dave Meltzer
The last day of NJPW’s 25th annual G1 Climax airs live on NJPW World at 2:00 a.m. ET from Ryogoku Sumo Hall in Tokyo, Japan:
It opened with Delirious doing an interview in English. He put over that ROH has the best wrestling in the U.S. and New Japan has the best wrestling in Japan and together they present the best wrestling in the world. He announced that in 2016 that ROH would be promoting shows in Japan. It got a polite response and some “ROH” chants. It sounded like something similar to Fantastica Mania.
JUSHIN LIGER & YOHEI KOMATSU & SHO TANAKA VS. RYUSUKE TAGUCHI & MASCARA DORADA & DAVID FINLAY
Fast paced opener but they were limited on time. Everything was crisp but Tanaka & Komatsu had a better chance to show their stuff on Sunday’s show. Taguchi pinned Komatsu after imitating Nakamura and then doing a near bom a ye hip attack combination after Dorada and Finlay took out Liger and Tanaka with dives.
HIROYOSHI TENZAN & SATOSHI KOJIMA & CAPTAIN NEW JAPAN VS. YUJI NAGATA & MANABU NAKANISHI & JAY WHITE
Decent match. Kojima, Nagata and White were all good but it was a quick in and out match with mostly crisp work and guys doing their signature spots. The finish saw Tenzan & Kojima hit the 3-D on White and Tenzan used the Anaconda vise for the subission. Fans booed Captain.
YOSHI-HASHI VS. MICHAEL ELGIN
Crowd was very into this one. Elgin was a big hit on all the Tokyo shows. The match was what you’d expect but the crowd was into it a lot more than a match of this type. Yoshi-Hashi got some offense in, good near falls, before missing a swanton. Elgin came back with a spinning chop, a spinning elbow, a power bomb into the buckles and a spinning Elgin bomb.
TORU YANO & TOMOHIRO ISHII & KAZUSHI SAKURABA VS. BAD LUCK FALE & YUJIRO TAKAHASHI & TAMA TONGA
Yujiro came out with Peter, a hot female dancer in a catwoman costume. Not much to this match. The big thing was Yano giving Yujiro a low blow and and Peter checked it out and gave an “X” sign. Finish was the double low blow on Yujiro and Fale by Yano, and then Ishii pinned Yujiro afer a brainbuster. Tonga looked good, the rest were just there.’
TOMOAKI HONMA & TETSUYA NAITO & TOGI MAKABE VS. HIROOKI GOTO & KATSUYORI SHIBATA & KOTA IBUSHI
Fun match, ending with Ibushi pinning Honma clean with the Phoenix splash. Lots of heat for Shibata vs. Naito and everything involving Honma. Toned down given the talent involved.
During intermission they announced that Wrestle Kingdom 10 would take place on 1/4 at the Tokyo Dome. Nobody was exactly surprised. However, the next thing was a surprise as Genichiro Tenryu came out and started arguing with Gedo. Gedo brought up Kazuchika Okada’s name and Okada came out. Okada told Tenryu that he should be happy that he wasn’t around when Tenryu was in his prime. Seemed to set up Okada vs. Tenryu as the main event for Tenryu’s retirement show in November.
YOUNG BUCKS VS. BOBBY FISH & KYLE O’REILLY FOR IWGP JR. TAG TITLES
Fish & O’Reilly regained the title with Chasing the dragon first on Matt on the floor and then on Nick in the ring and Fish pinning him. A ton of moves and well timed. Crowd wasn’t that into it early on but they did get the crowd as the match went on. Cody Hall interfered a lot including at once point carrying O’Reilly to the back and Fish had to work several minutes on his own until O’Reilly came back. Lots of fast creative spots back and forth.
KUSHIDA VS. RICOCHET FOR IWGP JR. TITLE
Excellent match ending with Kushida using the hoverboard lock, or Kimura, on Ricochet after Ricochet had missed the 630. Both congrataulated each other after and hugged. Ricochet seemed to be asking for one more match. This wasn’t out of his world athletic like Ricochet vs. Ibushi last year. Not a lot of mind blowing moves, with the highlights being Ricochet doing this incredible running flip over the post dive and Kushida, on the top rope did a flip dive on the post and landed badly on the floor like he’d been power bombed on the floor.
KAZUCHIKA OKADA & MICHAEL BENNETT & MATT TAVEN VS. A.J. STYLES & KARL ANDERSON & DOC GALLOWS
Good fast paced match with a surprise finish as Styles pinned Okada after the Styles clash. This pretty much locks that Okada vs. Styles will be on a fall PPV for the IWGP title likely in either September or October. All the stuff with Okada and Styles was excellent, but it was really Anderson and Taven that were in much of the time. Maria did one spot where she tried to seduce Anderson. Styles tried to calm him down until Anderson basically told him to look at her and Styles stared dancing and was all mesmerized. Gallows yelled at both and wanted to punch her but they both stopped him, and then all three turned around into kicks.
The first G-1 champion Mr. August, Masahiro Chono came out to help announce the main event. Keiji Muto, who lost to Chono in the first G-1, also came out. Muto got a huge reaction and Chono got a good reaction. They are playing their stuff over the house mic before the match starts.
HIROSHI TANAHASHI VS. SHINSUKE NAKAMURA FOR THE G-1 FINALS
All I can say is the main event was unbelievable. They went more than 32:00 and it ended with them both on the ropes throwing elbows and slaps and then Tanahashi with Nakamura on the middle rope with his back to the ring, hit a crossbody and they crashed to the ground. Tanahashi then followed with a high fly flow to the back and a regular high fly flow and got the pin. They shook hands when it was over. Chono then handed Tanahashi the G-1 flag to wave. Both kicked out of the others’ finishers and this was basically the pull all stops out match after the great main events each man had the last two nights. So it looks like another Okada vs. Tanahashi Tokyo Dome main event.