The little tour between Dominion and the G1 Climax never offers a match of the year contender but it does its job in heating up some people and setting up matches for future shows.
Night 1:
Yota Tsuji Draws with Yuya Uemara
Yujiro Takahashi & Taiji Ishimori Def. Shota Umino & Tomoyuki Oka
Sho, Yoh & Rocky Romero Def. Ren Narita, KUSHIDA & David Finlay
Toru Yano & Yoshi-Hashi Def. Toa Henare & Togi Makabe
Suzuki Gun Def. LIJ
Taguchi Japan def. CHAOS
No announcements tonight and no title matches. The aim was allowing Desperado and Eglin get wins over their opponents for night 3 and 2 respectively and also heat some midcard guys up ahead of G1.
Night 2:
Yota Tsuji Draws with Yuya Uemara
Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi Def. Tomoyuki Oka & Shota Umino
Yujiro Takahashi & Taiji Ishimori Def. Ren Narita & Hiroyoshi Tenzan
Taguchi Japan Def. CHAOS (Jeff Cobb pins Rocky)
Post Match: The Participants for the G1 Climax were announced, we will cover this deeper but initially this has me excited save for Hashi and Tonga it’s a pretty sweet lineup full of potentially awesome matches.
LIJ Def. Suzuki Gun
Tomohiro Ishii, Jay White & Kazuchika Okada Def. David Finlay, Juice Robinson & Hiroshi Tanahashi
NEVER Openweight Championship: Michael Elgin (c) vs Hirooki Goto
This was a hoss fight in every sense of the word. Elgin especially was brutal with his lariats and powerbombs. Goto held on and fought back every chance he could get. Taichi interfered but Jeff Cobb creamed him and it was back to these two warriors. The announcers really sold it with their screaming and general excitement at some of the vicious shots. In the end, Goto picked up the win after a thirty-minute war. 8/10
Post Match: After picking up the win earlier today Jeff Cobb sets himself up as the next challenger
The G1 announcement was the main draw but the NEVER title match is one must see match. The only other highlights were the repetitive ten man tags which are always great.
Night 3:
Yota Tsuji Draws with Yuya Uemara
Yujiro Takahashi & Taiji Ishimori Def. Ren Narita & Shota Umino
Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi Def. Tomoyuki Oka & Hiroyoshi Tenzan
Sho, Yoh, Yoshi-Hashi & Toru Yano Def. Ryusuke Taguchi, Toa Henare, David Finlay & Togi Makabe
Post Match: Blocks announced for the G1. Block A is top heavy with Tanahashi, Okada, Suzuki and Jay White. Block B is seriously stacked with Zack Sabre Junior, Naito, Omega, Ibushi and Toru Yano (the best of all)
LIJ Def. Suzuki Gun
Taguchi Japan Def. CHAOS
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: Hiromu Takahashi (c) vs El Desperado
This was very similar to their BOSJ match but never reached the same heights. The violence and hatred were there but the pacing was slower and the heat wasn’t there. Some cool spots as usual but a heat segment that was a tad too long took me out of the match. After 28 minutes of action Hiromu retained thanks to the Time Bomb. 7/10
No new challenges and a good main event. This wasn’t a newsworthy show outside the Block announcements which brought a lot of excitement. Par for the course for this tour nothing to absolutely make time for but some good stuff if you have free time.