by Bryan Rose, WrestlingObserver.com

Welcome to tonight’s coverage of Day 9 of the G1 Climax tournament, held today in Aichi, at the Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium. This is a multi-camera set up with no commentary.

It was announced before the matches started today that Tiger Mask is out today due to a neck injury. The eight man that was scheduled to start the show will now be a six man.

Satoshi Kojima, KUSHIDA, Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Tomoaki Honma, Mascara Dorada & David Finlay Jr.

This was a backdrop to Kojima vs. Honma as they’re due to square off soon in the G1 tournament. Crowd was super into them interacting with their back and forth. The few moments Dorada was in there, he looked great. Kushida isolates Finlay and submits him with the hoverboard lock.

Kojima and Honma had a pull apart after the match that had to be stopped by their teammates.

Michael Elgin & Jay White vs. Yujiro Takahashi & Cody Hall

The lone star of this match was Elgin who continues to get himself over big time here in New Japan, doing all of his great offense, including a Harlem hangover off the middle rope. Beyond Elgin, this was a boring tag match with zero heat whenever the heels came in and worked their offense. Yujiro won after landing the Tokyo Pimps on White.

Hirooki Goto, Yuji Nagata & Captain New Japan vs. Shinsuke Nakamura, Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI

Standard, solid tag match. A lot of the focus was on interactions between Nakamura and Goto, as well as Ishii and Yuji Nagata. Yoshi Hashi got the win for his team, pinning Captain New Japan after a swanton bomb.

Kazuchika Okada & Gedo vs. Karl Anderson & Tama Tonga

Another standard tag team match. Anderson and Okada were the focus this time around, with Anderson working on Gedo for a good portion of the match. Okada made a comeback, but eventually their seconds were tagged back in and Tama Tonga got the win with his waistlock DDT.

Kota Ibushi vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan

Very good match. Ibushi missed his trademark moonsault at one point and took a spectacular bump on the outside, rolling around and landing near the barricade. Great exchanges including Ibusi doing his flurry of offense, including the mongolian chops. Tenzan tried the anaconda buster but Ibushi dodged and landed on his feet. He made a comeback then pinned him with the phoenix splash. Ibushi looked great and Tenzan chose his spots well which made this a very well worked match.

Katsuyori Shibata vs. Bad Luck Fale

This was kept rather short, which was probably for the better the way this was going. Fale dominated a lot of the match after throwing Shibata on the guardrail. Fale picked him up like he was going to finish him off but Shibata floated over with a sleeper. Fale tried to fight it off but he fell to the floor, then Shibata came back with the penalty kick for the win. Cool finish, uninteresting match.

A.J. Styles vs. Doc Gallows

This was a good storytelling kind of match. Gallows, who is in fact way bigger than Styles, dominated the match from the start. AJ eventually started to wear him down, eventually at one point hooking Gallows’ leg and rolling into a calf killer. Gallows went for a back body drop but AJ floated over, landed on his feet and planted Gallows with the Bloody Sunday DDT for the win.

Togi Makabe vs. Tetsuya Naito

Awesome match. Naito took an exceptionally long time taking off his outfit, and eventually Makabe got tired of his antics and jumped him. Naito reversed it and sent him to the barricades then started to take off the outfit. Very good back and forth match. Makabe missed the King Kong knee drop. Naito tried his flash bridging pin twice but it didn’t work. Crowd very into the nearfalls. Naito was sent to the turnbuckle where Makabe was going to the knee drop again. Naito’s head was rammed into the post twice, busting him open, then Makabe landed the knee drop and pinned him.
 Toru Yano vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
Good match for what it was. Yano in the past year has really excelled at working his own comedic style and turning it into, at the very least, an entertaining match. Tanahashi went to splash Yano on the outside but Yano dodged and Tanahashi crashed into the post. Yano got the heat by mostly using the exposed turnbuckle pad. Tanahashi went for the high fly flow out of the ring but Yano ran under the ring, only for Tanahashi to baseball slide him and give him the high fly flow anyway. It was a match where Yano was doing his usual tactics but nothing was working, even after Tanahashi missed the senton after doing Yano’s taunt. They did a ref bump spot as Yano tried to use the chair but Tanahashi got the better of him and laid him out with the slingblade on the chair, then followed with a high fly flow for the win. It seems like Yano’s cut from a few days ago was reopened towards the later stages of the match.

Current Standings

Block A

Katsuyori Shibata- 8

Bad Luck Fale- 6

Tetsuya Natio- 6

AJ Styles- 6

Hiroshi Tanhashi- 6

Kota Ibushi- 6

Togi Makabe- 4

Hiroyoshi Tenzan- 2

Toru Yano- 2
Doc Gallows- 2

Block B

Tomohiro Ishii- 6

Kazuchika Okada- 6

Karl Anderson- 6

Hirooki Goto- 6

Shinsuke Nakamura- 4

Michael Elgin- 4

Yujiro Takahashi- 4

Satoshi Kojima- 2

Yuji Nagata- 2

Tomoaki Honma- 0