Night 12 of the G1 saw B block wrestle their sixth matches in Fukuoka.
Match photos and full results!
Ninth Match: Hirooki Goto (3-3) defeated Tomohiro Ishii (3-3) via pinfall.
Goto and Ishii charged at one another early, with Goto coming out on top. Ishii can not be stopped for long however, and fired right back at Goto. Ishii would taunt Goto with each heavy blow, but Goto answered with a big suplex, scoring a two count. Goto wouldn’t crumble before the Stone Pitbull, and when Ishii took over in the corner, Goto responded with elbow after elbow before the two traded in the middle, Ishii needing to use a powerslam to break Goto’s forward momentum.
The fight found its way to the terrifying heights of the top rope at the ten minute mark where Ishii and Goto continued to trade blows before Goto hit the Revolution off the top rope, tossing Ishii to the center logo. When he tried to follow with a lariat though, Ishii was having none of it, the two colliding several times before Ishii turned the Fierce Warrior inside out with a mighty blow. A big German suplex and sliding lariat would follow, but only for two; when Ishii looked for the Vertical Drop Brainbuster, Goto managed to keep his center of gravity low, and eventually hit a neckbreaker across his knee.
Goto would get a nearfall from Ushigoroshi, and knowing he needed extra venom to keep Ishii down, would try to reign in kicks. This only succeeded in angering Ishii, who came back with headbutts. Goto would persevere however, and after a valiant exchange of counters from Ishii, hit a GTR to win.
Eighth Match: Jay White (3-3) defeated Taichi (2-4) via pinfall.
Taichi brought both Miho Abe and Yoshinobu Kanemaru to the ring with him in order to counteract Gedo at ringside.
The match started slowly, with first contact not coming until three minutes into the match, and that being on the floor, as both men tried to out cheat the other.
White had the bulk of the offense when action was in the ring, but Taichi was able to fire back with some heavy offense of his own, with a solid gamengiri that could have been followed by a Buzzsaw were it not for White going deliberately prone.
It was only a matter of time before the seconds got more involved, and when Gedo and Kanemaru were at ringside, White tried to low blow Taichi but was hit low himself, the ensuing Gedo clutch only resulting in a two count because Gedo yanked the referee out of the ring.
As Kanemaru and Gedo finally took each other out of the equation, Taichi came within a hair of beating White, but fell short. After a riveting series of counters, White hit an SSS, Bloody Sunday and then Bladerunner for the victory.
Seventh Match: Tetsuya Naito (3-3) defeated Juice Robinson (3-3) via pinfall.
Both men started slow, with Juice Robinson mocking Naito’s tranquilo approach, slowly disrobing and removing first one, then two and three T shirts. Naito would get early offense though, mocking Juice’s mannerisms as he went.
The match got more serious out on the floor as Juice landed a tornado DDT, but Naito hit a big dropkick to take control. Juice fired back, and tried a powerbomb, countered once by Naito but not on the second time of asking after a Robinson Frankensteiner.
Try as Robinson might, Naito had at least one answer for most of Robinson’s offense. His Juicebox was countered into a Poison Rana by Naito, and while Juice did land the move later out of a Destino attempt, he couldn’t land Pulp Friction. Naito would hit Valentia to Juice, and then land Destino for the victory.
Sixth Match: Toru Yano (3-3) defeated Jon Moxley (5-1) via countout.
A somewhat intimidated Toru Yano attempted to return both the DVD he owed Moxley and the 5000 Yen he owed ring announcer Ozaki, but Moxley had none of it early. Outside the ring, Yano tried to tape Moxley to the guardrail, but Moxley responded in kind, with Yano barely breaking the count. Moxley scored a Regal Knee, before making the biggest mistake of his tournament by going outside. He fetched a table, creating distance needed for Yano to low blow both he and Shota Umino. Yano taped Moxley and Umino’s legs together and the pair couldn’t win the three legged race against the referee’s count, handing Moxley his first NJPW loss.
Fifth match: Jeff Cobb (3-3) defeated Shingo Takagi (2-4) via pinfall.
After early feeling out, it was Cobb who first took Takagi off his feet. A Spin Cycle and Gachimuchi Moonsault followed, but Shingo fired back with a huge backdrop suplex at the five minute mark. Takagi pushed the advantage with a massive superplex to his larger opponent.
The two would trade exploders, lariats, punches and headbutts as the crowd came alive. Cobb attempted the Tour of the Islands but was ermarkably countered into Noshigami and then a Pumping Bomber for a two count. Takagi even managed to land Made In Japan, but Cobb escaped the Last of the Dragon to land a massive German suplex and Tour of the Islands for the win.
Fourth Match: CHAOS (YOSHI-HASHI, Will Ospreay & Kazuchika Okada) defeated Los Ingobernables De Japon (BUSHI, EVIL & SANADA) when YOSHI-HASHI submitted BUSHI.
EVIL seemed to struggle with Ospreay’s high paced offense early until he was able to make trademark use of the referee to bring in his LIJ comrades. Okada and SANADA were locked together for much of the match as well, leaving YOSHI-HASHI to BUSHI. when YOSHI-HASHI managed to find a Butterfly Lock on BUSHI, SANADA came in with Skull End, but Okada was quick to break it up. Eventually YOSHI-HASHI did indeed get the tap out win. Post match, SANADA and Okada shared the ring, with Okada prompting SANADA to get up on the turnbuckles and check the temperature of the Fukuoka crowd.
Third Match: Toa Henare, Tomoaki Honma & Kota Ibushi defeated Ren Narita, Shota Umino & Hiroshi Tanahashi when Henare pinned Narita.
Narita showed fire early with hot strikes to Honma. Umino struggled though, and was isolated, taking stiff strikes from all three opponents and a Kokeshi from Honma. Ibushi and Tanahashi had some spirited exchanges when legal, but as they fought to the outside, it was Narita left inside to take a TOA Bottom for the Henare scored win.
Second Match: Suzuki-Gun (Zack Sabre Junior & Minoru Suzuki) defeated Suzuki-Gun (Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Lance Archer) when Sabre pinned Kanemaru.
In a surprise fast start, Suzuki and ZSJ jumped Archer and Kanemaru as they made their entrance. In a short and intense bout, Zack evaded the EBD claw from Archer, and locked in a Europen Clutch on Kanemaru to get the pin.
First match: BULLET CLUB (Bad Luck Fale, Chase Owens & Yujiro Takahashi) defeated KENTA, Clark Connors & Karl Fredericks when Owens pinned Fredericks.
Connors and Fredericks continued to look impressive, with Fredericks showing remarkable intensity as he locked in a half crab on Takahashi that he only released to deliver a spinebuster on Owens. Ultimately though, he was left alone to take a Package Piledriver.
