NJPW G1 Climax Results
July 30, 2017 (Night 10)
Industrial Hall, Gifu, Japan
UNDERCARD MATCHES
– Zack Sabre Jr. & Desperado def. Togi Makabe & Shota Umino
– Yoshi-Hashi & Tomohiro Ishii def. Yuji Nagata & Tomoyuki Oka
– Ryusuke Taguchi & Hiroshi Tanahashi def. Kota Ibushi & Hirai Kawato
– Hiromu Takahashi & Tetsuya Naito def. Hirooki Goto & Gedo
B BLOCK TOURNAMENT MATCHES
– EVIL (6) def. Toru Yano (2)
– Minoru Suzuki (4) def. Tama Tonga (4)
– Sanada (4) def. Michael Elgin (4)
– Kenny Omega (6) def. Satoshi Kojima (0)
– Kazuchika Okada (8) def. Juice Robinson (2)
Updated B Block Standings:
Kazuchika Okada – 10
Kenny Omega – 8
EVIL – 8
Minoru Suzuki – 6
Sanada – 6
Tama Tonga – 4
Michael Elgin – 4
———————–
Toru Yano – 2
Juice Robinson – 2
Satoshi Kojima – 0
Mike’s Post-Show Analysis
While Juice Robinson put up a valiant effort in perhaps the single most important match of his young career thus far, it was ultimately the IWGP Heavyweight Champion who stood tall at the end of night ten. Okada moves up to a flawless ten points – a number that in another era would have virtually guaranteed you a spot in the G1 Finals.
It was expected that Juice would lose the majority of his tournament matches as the newest member of the roster involved in this year’s G1. It was somewhat of a surprise that he was picked to compete at all, given that at this time last year he was wrestling on the undercard as a part of the Young Lions. For newcomers it’s not the overall record in your first few G1 tournaments that matter, but rather the heart shown and quality of your performances when put to the test against big names. Two years ago Juice was shoehorned into a lousy gimmick, losing mediocre matches at NXT house shows. Today he headlined a G1 Climax event against the greatest IWGP Heavyweight Champion in history, and had an entire Japanese crowd chanting his name. It’s safe to say that he made the right decision.
It’s extremely rare to see competitors knocked out of contention this early into the G1, and yet the bottom three have already been mathematically eliminated from the B Block. Okada holds wins over both Toru Yano and Juice Robinson meaning the best case scenario, if they were to win every single one of their remaining bouts, would still see them lose a tie on the final night of block competition. Michael Elgin and Tama Tonga hang on a razor thin wire. While not technically eliminated, it’s “win or go home” for both stars from this point forward. They also need Okada to lose every single one of his four remaining bouts, so it’s very possible that by the end of night twelve, 50% or more of the B Block will have been eliminated from contention altogether.
Okada’s remaining opponents are Tama Tonga, EVIL, Minoru Suzuki and Kenny Omega in that order. While the first two would be considered major upsets, they’re also the two you would want to go with if a big upset was the plan. There’s the possible story of Tama finding a way to beat Okada and having that to hang over Kenny Omega’s head, but it’s an incredibly unlikely scenario at best. Minoru could potentially play the foil, but even he’s not on that level anymore. In any other year I could see them going over just to even the playing field a bit going into the final few nights, but this isn’t any other year. Okada’s booking combined with his match quality since winning the title have turned him into a legitimate once-in-a-century level champion; it’s almost absurd to imagine anyone beating him in less than 30 minutes.
So realistically, it’s Kenny or it’s no one…. We shall see! We have one day off on Monday morning, but we’re right back to it with some A Block competition in the early hours of Tuesday. See you then!
