NJPW G1 Climax 2013 Day 9 Finals Results and Review

NJPW G1 Climax 2013 Day 9 Finals Results and Review

Day 1 is here: http://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2013/08/njpw-g1-climax-2013-day-1-results-and.html

Day 2 is here: http://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2013/08/njpw-g1-climax-2013-day-2-results-and.html

Day 3 is here: http://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2013/08/njpw-g1-climax-2013-day-3-results-and.html

Day 4 is here: http://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2013/08/njpw-g1-climax-2013-day-4-results-and.html

Day 5 is here: http://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2013/08/njpw-g1-climax-2013-day-5-results-and.html

Day 6 is here: http://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2013/08/njpw-g1-climax-2013-day-6-results-and.html

Day 7 is here: http://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2013/08/njpw-g1-climax-day-7-results-and-review.html

Day 8 is here: http://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2013/08/njpw-g1-climax-day-8-results-and-review.html

These people have chances to win their blocks today:
From:  http://fightnetwork.com/news/40425:law-aug.-10-update-everything-you-need-for-g-1-finals/

BLOCK A
*Katsuyori Shibata (vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi) – If Shibata wins then he needs Smith and Makabe to both tie or lose their matches, with a win Shibata would at worst be tied with Smith and Makabe, who he defeated in their tournament matches.
*Davey Boy Smith Jr. (vs. Lance Archer) – If Smith beats Archer then Shibata would have to tie or lose to Tanahashi and Makabe would have to tie or lose to Devitt
*Togi Makabe (vs. Prince Devitt) – If Makabe beats Devitt then Shibata and Smith would have to tie or lose
*Hiroshi Tanahashi (vs. Shibata) – If Tanahashi beats Shibata then both Smith Jr., Okada and Makabe would have to lose
*Kazuchika Okada (vs. Satoshi Kojima) – At best Okada can only tie for first with Shibata or Tanahashi if those two went the time limit or Tanahashi won along with Smith Jr. and Makabe either going to the time limit or losing

BLOCK B
*Minoru Suzuki (vs. Toru Yano) – With a win Suzuki would be up to 12-points and would require both Karl Anderson and Shinsuke Nakamura to lose their matches, Suzuki beat both of them in their tournament matches. If Suzuki and Yano go the time limit Suzuki could still win if the other two tie or lose
*Karl Anderson (vs. Tetsuya Naito) – If Anderson wins or ties and Suzuki and Nakamura lose he would win
*Shinsuke Nakamura (vs. Shelton Benjamin) – If Nakamura wins or ties and Suzuki and Anderson lose he would win
*Yuji Nagata (vs. Yujiro) – Of the three above Nagata only beat Suzuki so if Nagata beat Yujiro, Suzuki lost his match and Nakamura and Anderson both lose he would win
*Tetsuya Naito (vs. Karl Anderson) – This one is interesting because if Naito wins tomorrow he has wins over all the people above so if he wins and the above lose then Naito would win the block in the event of a tie with all having 10-points
*Yujiro Takahashi(vs. Yuji Nagata) - He needs to win in order to go a tiebreaker.
*Shelton Benjamin(vs. Shinsuke Nakamura) - He needs to in order to go to a tiebreaker.


I'll be skipping the tag match today.

NJPW, 8/11/13 (WPW)

Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan
 
G1 Climax – Block B: Yuji Nagata vs. Yujiro Takahashi

Yuji Nagata won with a nasty wrist clutch exploder. Yujro busted open Nagata's mouth with a slap near the end and he got pissed. He took out his anger on Yujro with a release german on his head, a backdrop on his head and then as mentioned above, a nasty wrist clutch exploder...on his head. Don't piss Nagata off.

The match was good. They kept it moving and they didn't let Yujiro control things. Nagata spitting blood was cool too.

G1 Climax – Block B: Toru Yano vs. Minoru Suzuki

Yano got the surprise win by pulling Suzuki's legs out and sitting on him. Suzuki pummeled Yano most of the match, which is something I'd like to do after having to watch him for 9 days straight. Suzuki mostly worked the leg here and near the end, Yano kept trying to cheat but to no avail.

G1 Climax – Block B: Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Shelton Benjamin

Shelton got the win with a surprise jumping reverse STO. This wasn't bad at all. The crowd liked it and Nakamura made all of Shelton's spots make sense, which worked out well. Nakamura was into this one and these two matched up well. I didn't like the ref allowing Shelton to hit Nakamura with a belt shot in clear view though. Rating:***

G1 Climax – Block B: Tetsuya Naito vs. Karl Anderson

Naito won with a version of the Spider Twist. Good match. The announcers really went nuts for this and tried to put it over the top. The crowd liked it too. Early, Anderson mocked and beat up on Naito and really, Anderson got most of the offense Naito got to kick out for two big nearfalls near the end and ended up taking it, somewhat out of nowhere. Rating:***1/2

G1 Climax – Block A: Lance Archer vs. Davey Boy Smith Jr.

Lance Archer won with a Blackout. This is probably the most fun monster vs monster match you will ever see. They started off early with mirror spots and tried to one up each other, did that a bit more and then started throwing bombs. Davey got Archer up for a powerbomb, hit a nice backdrop and then late took the big Blackout. I really loved this one and credit to these two for showing up big and really showing that they aren't just generic big guys. Great effort here. Rating:***1/2

G1 Climax – Block A: Togi Makabe vs. Prince Devitt

Devitt won with a Bloody Sunday. This was every Devitt heel match ever with ref bumps and tons of cheating. The only thing of note was Devitt wearing a money mask in the beginning.

G1 Climax – Block A: Satoshi Kojima vs. Kazuchika Okada

Kojima won with a lariat. Good match here with a very hot crowd. They hit some really good clotheslines on each other and I loved Kojima spazzing out on Okada with punches. I also enjoyed him busting out Tenzan's moves. The highlight though was the selling as Okada did some great selling. Good stuff all around. Rating:***1/2

G1 Climax – Block A: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Katsuyori Shibata

Hiroshi Tanahashi won with a suprise cradle off of a GTS in a quick match. This was good but I didn't like the ending and for a dream match like this, it deserved a lot more than just some hurry job. It was hot and the crowd loved it but the booking just wasn't there unfortunately. They both hit multiple headbutts here and really went at it. I wish this would have been on any other night, as we would have gotten the match we deserved between these two.

G1 Climax – Final: Block A 1st place vs. Block B 1st place - Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Tetsuya Naito

Naito beat Hiroshi Tanahashi with the Stardust Press. This was a good match that was longer than it needed to be. Naito spent the whole match trying to survive while Tana worked the knee.
The crowd was hot for all of this as were the announcers. I didn't think it was great but there weren't many problems with this. It was a perfectly acceptable final and both men put in some good work. Rating:***3/4

Thoughts on Naito's win - I didn't have a problem with it. It made sense. He's one of NJPW's younger wrestlers and they obviously have big plans for him. He just returned from injury and he needed a big win to move up in the NJPW ranks. I figured either he or Shibata would win it and either were good choices, but in the long run, Naito was the better choice. NJPW can rely on him and he's younger. Tanahashi, Okada and Nakamura didn't really need the win and Shibata would have been a good option, but realistically, Naito gets more out of this.

Overall thoughts - This was a great night of wrestling. There were multiple good matches and a good crowd. I was very disappointed by Tanahashi/Shibata but hopefully they will meet again. As a whole, the tournament has been pretty great but there were clearly "big show" days and "house show" days. Still, we got the amazing Shibata/Ishii spectacle and the fabulous Tanahashi/Ishii battle. This was a great G1 and quite possibly the best G1 yet.