Taichi looks to upset Kazuchika Okada as block B of the G1 rolled into Kochi…<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Quick Results<\/strong> Kevin Kelly\u2019s flying solo in the Kochi Prefectural Gymnasium as we\u2019re halfway through a run of three consecutive nights of G1 action…<\/p>\n Kosei Fujita vs. El Desperado<\/strong> Kevin Kelly\u2019s busy plotting EVIL\u2019s path to winning the block as Fujita was going for a cross armbar on Desperado, but Despy escapes and takes the guard, throwing some strikes before Fujita spun free and went back to the cross armbar.<\/p>\n After taking some, Desperado takes Fujita into the ropes for some chops, before he began to work over Fujita\u2019s leg with a knee drop onto it. Fujita\u2019s making damn sure he\u2019s kicking out of a series of pin attempts, before a slam dropped the Young Lion with some authority. Going back to the left leg, Desperado grabbed a toe hold, forcing Fujita to crawl to the ropes, before Fujita looked to make a fightback.<\/p>\n A takedown sees Fujita snatch a two-count from the junior tag champion, then we get a nice back body drop from him as Fujita looked to be unable to follow up by way of that earlier leg work. Still, Fujita\u2019s able to roll Desperado for a Boston crab, but they\u2019re in the ropes before they can get going, and Desperado returns with an Indian deathlock, looking to claim two Young Lion wins with the hold.<\/p>\n Fujita\u2019s able to hold on more than Oiwa could yesterday, but as soon as Desperado stood up to add pressure, Fujita also tapped out as Desperado picked up another nonchalant win. Fujita seemed to offer more of a fight here, as the new Young Lions look to find their places. ***<\/p>\n G1 Climax 31 \u2013 Block B: Tama Tonga vs. YOSHI-HASHI<\/strong> Having a taped-up left arm meant that YOSHI-HASHI had an obvious bullseye on him, which Tama Tonga focused on to start with. He\u2019s able to pull ahead, hanging Tama in the ropes for a dropkick to the back, but Tama\u2019s up at two and returned to knock YOSHI-HASHI down, absorbing some chops before he ripped off his vest.<\/p>\n Elbows from Tama Tonga keep YOSHI-HASHI down, as did a rear naked choke\u2026 but YOSHI-HASHI throws his way free and came back with a low dropkick to Tama\u2019s knee. Some headscissors and a neckbreaker get YOSHI-HASHI a two-count, before Tama Tonga looked to come back with a Tongan Twist, only to run into a chop as a Bunker Bunter\u2019s turned into the Tongan Twist for a near-fall.<\/p>\n Tama heads up top and hits the Supreme Flow splash for a near-fall, before YOSHI-HASHI countered a Gun Stun into a back cracker. Ow. A Kumagoroshi followed, but Tama barely kicks out in time, before a sleeperhold turned into Karma\u2026 but Tama floats out and tried to hit a Gun Stun, before he ate a Dragon suplex instead.<\/p>\n YOSHI-HASHI looks to put him away with a Western lariat, but it\u2019s ducked as an enziguiri from Tama earned him a superkick from YOSHI-HASHI, before Karma got the win. That\u2019s Tama out of the G1 as block B begins to thin down. ***<\/p>\n G1 Climax 31 \u2013 Block B: Chase Owens vs. Hirooki Goto<\/strong> Owens caught Goto with a shotgun dropkick at the bell, then took him outside for a dropkick as Chase wanted to end this in a hurry. A missile dropkick nearly shuts us out in under thirty seconds, but Goto keeps kicking out and knocked Owens to the outside.<\/p>\n Goto gives chase to, erm, Chase, but gets caught with a superkick before reversing a whip into the rails. Owens\u2019 arm gets wrapped around the rails, before Goto wrapped up Owens in the ring for a couple of pin attempts. Chase returns with a Texas Twister submission, with his version of a STF leading to the exchange of strikes.<\/p>\n Owens\u2019 lariat\u2019s good for a near-fall, before Goto pulled him down for a belly-to-belly as a follow-up cross armbar also ended in the ropes. Chase rolls Goto to his feet ahead of an over-the-knee brainbuster for a near-fall, and my feed gives out. We\u2019re back as Chase rolled Goto onto the apron, looking for a package piledriver, but a back body drop took Chase down.<\/p>\n Beating the count, Owens resumes the exchange of elbows, pulling ahead with a back elbow before the pair continued to trade strikes. A short German suplex has Goto down, as did an enziguiri, before the Jewel Heist clothesline nearly put Goto away. Goto blocks the C-Trigger and countered with a reverse GTR as he pulled ahead, only for Owens to hit that C-Trigger after all. From there, Owens pulls up Goto for a package piledriver, but it\u2019s countered into a GTR, and that\u2019s enough for the win. This was a match that was technically fine, but I just couldn\u2019t get into this at all – unfortunately, that\u2019s the risk of these dead-rubbers\u2026 **\u00be<\/p>\n G1 Climax 31 \u2013 Block B: Jeff Cobb vs. SANADA<\/strong> The early feeling-out process sees Cobb charge down SANADA, before SANADA took him outside\u2026 following up with a cannonball off the apron. Back inside, elbows from SANADA led to nought as Cobb just took him down before he just stood on SANADA\u2019s back. SANADA\u2019s charged into the corners by Cobb, before backbreakers led to a two-count.<\/p>\n SANADA tried to fight back, catching Cobb with a dropkick after a pair of leapfrogs, before a Paradise lock ended with Cobb pushing free. A \u2018rana from SANADA takes Cobb outside, but the follow up plancha is caught as SANADA\u2019s charged into the ring post. Back inside, a running back suplex from Cobb lands for a near-fall, before SANADA countered a whip into the corner by launching with a missile dropkick into Cobb.<\/p>\n A standing moonsault\u2019s good for a two-count as SANADA pulled ahead, dumping Cobb hard with a Magic Screw as Cobb needed to grab the rope to stay alive. SANADA teases a reverse rana, but instead Cobb just ragdolls him into a wheelbarrow German suplex. Before a Tour of the Islands was countered into a Skull End.<\/p>\n Cobb rolls free to break the hold, but an Oklahoma Stampede\u2019s turned back into a Skull End, before SANADA slipped on an O\u2019Connor roll, yet still got a two-count. Missing a moonsault sees SANADA come up shot, as Cobb was really having issues with his leg\u2026 but he\u2019s able to catch a SANADA moonsault and turn it into a Tour of the Islands as even with a bum knee, Jeff Cobb is freakishly strong and manages to make it 6-0. SANADA had the right idea, but this isn\u2019t to be his year. ***\u00bd<\/p>\n G1 Climax 31 \u2013 Block B: EVIL vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi<\/strong> At the top of the show, Kevin Kelly had ominously suggested that a win for EVIL here could fast-track him to winning the block with shenanigans, with his final three being against Goto, Cobb and SANADA.<\/p>\n Things start innocently enough with EVIL taking Tanahashi into the ropes as a switcheroo led to a clean break. Tanahashi grabs a side headlock on EVIL, as we start our sample of shenanigans with EVIL kicking the ropes into Tanahashi\u2019s aces. The guard rails wait for Tanahashi, as EVIL then went looking for chairs, pushing one into Tanahashi\u2019s knee as the referee managed to disarm EVIL.<\/p>\n Tanahashi hobbles back to the ring, but EVIL stays on Tanahashi\u2019s oft-injured wheel, cutting off Tanahashi\u2019s attempt to fight back with a handful of hair as the pair broke in the corner. A forearm has EVIL down, with a flip senton out of the corner following for a near-fall as Tanahashi\u2019s knee was clearly causing some discomfort.<\/p>\n EVIL blocks a Slingblade, throwing Tanahashi to the outside – where Dick Togo was waiting with a gut punch as the ref was distracted. Cue more trips to the guard rails, including one that wiped out the ring announcer for good measure. Still on the outside a Darkness Scorpion looked to wear out Tanahashi some more, as EVIL wanted to get the count-out.<\/p>\n Of course, EVIL let go too early, and while Dick Togo pulled Tanahashi out and into the timekeeper\u2019s table again, Tanahashi\u2019s still able to break the 20-count. EVIL stays ahead with a Fisherman buster for a two-count, before a Tanahashi dropkick levelled things up. Problem was, a corner pad had been removed, and Tanahashi\u2019s sent into the exposed corner as EVIL again found a shortcut.<\/p>\n Tanahashi manages to hit a Twist and Shout though, before a sliding dropkick to Togo allowed Tanahashi to hit that Slingblade for a near-fall. EVIL grabs the referee\u2019s foot to look for a distraction, but Red Shoes Unno pulls away as Tanahashi\u2019s High Fly Flow to the back leads to a Cloverleaf\u2026 but Togo pulls out the ref as EVIL tapped.<\/p>\n Togo tries for a belt shot, but Tanahashi ducks and puts him in a Cloverleaf, which EVIL broke up. They try for a Magic Killer on Tanahashi, but it\u2019s blocked as Tanahashi dumps Togo with Everything is EVIL\u2026 a low blow from Tanahashi rocks EVIL too, before another ref bump allowed EVIL to his Darkness Falls. Belt shot. Everything is EVIL… and a hesitant three-count ends it. This was fine until they laid in the shenanigans, but we know to expect that\u2026 still doesn\u2019t mean we ought to like it! ***<\/p>\n G1 Climax 31 \u2013 Block B: Taichi vs. Kazuchika Okada<\/strong> The first minute passes without contact, so you know we\u2019re teasing that 30-minute limit. Will it be Okada-by-Numbers though? We\u2019re outside with Taichi getting thrown into the guard rails ahead of a DDT, but Taichi returns the favour\u2026 having pulled up the padding as Okada\u2019s head met the floor, before he rolled Okada in to claim a two-count. Okada tries to fight back, but Taichi throws Okada down by the throat as some choking wore down the former champion.<\/p>\n Kawada-ish kicks from Taichi seemed to wake up Okada, who fought back with a flapjack out of the corner, only for a hook kick to send Okada back down. More kicks from Taichi take Okada into the corner for a gamengiri, before a head kick led to the removal of Taichi\u2019s trousers. Okada sidesteps a superkick, but gets taken down with a nodo otoshi chokeslam for a near-fall.<\/p>\n A Money Clip from Okada\u2019s next, but Taichi escapes\u2026 only to get dropkicked and put back in the hold. We\u2019ve more Money Clip as Okada seemed to be hell-bent on winning with that, but Taichi manages to get to the ropes to force the break. Changing tactic, Okada slams Taichi before going up for an elbow drop, with the Rainmaker zoom out following\u2026<\/p>\n Taichi ducks a Rainmaker, then wrecks Okada with a thrust kick for a near-fall as Okada barely peeled his shoulder off the mat in time. Looking to fight back, Okada tries for a tombstone, but Taichi elbows out, before an exchange of strikes saw Okada get levelled with a forearm.<\/p>\n Okada backdrops and sits on Taichi to counter Black Mephisto, but Taichi\u2019s up at two before a dropkick took Okada down as the pace intensified, right on cue at the 20-minute mark. Okada blocks a Dangerous backdrop driver, but ate a gamengiri ahead of the Dangerous backdrop driver for a near-fall, before going back to the Black Mephisto\u2026<\/p>\n …but Okada slips out and hits a discus clothesline, taking Taichi into the ropes, before an Axe Bomber countered a spinning Rainmaker. Okada\u2019s back with a dropkick and a spinning tombstone, before a Rainmaker\u2019s ducked and countered with a Gedo clutch for a near-fall as Okada eyeballed the ref. From there, Taichi fired up but ran into a landslide tombstone, with a Rainmaker closing the door as Taichi\u2019s G1 ended right there. This wasn\u2019t as \u201cpaint by numbers\u201d as that SANADA match was earlier in the week, but Okada manages to keep pace with Jeff Cobb at the top of the block. ***\u00be<\/p>\n Your latest standings: remember, block A dished out points up front after Naito\u2019s withdrawal\u2026 and we\u2019re realistically down to just three in block B.<\/p>\n Block A<\/strong> Block B<\/strong> The G1 returns on Saturday for the final weekend stop of the tour, as the Edion Arena hosts a block A card featuring a Young Lion sacrificial tag match, and Kota Ibushi vs. Great-O-Khan in the main event.<\/p>\n We\u2019re really starting to see the runners and the riders fall at this stage of the G1, as we continue to hurtle towards the blindingly-obvious Cobb\/Okada finale… although the presence of EVIL as a spoiler is making my blood run cold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Taichi looks to upset Kazuchika Okada as block B of the G1 rolled into Kochi…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":24849,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"NJPW G1 Climax 31 - Night Twelve (Block B) (October 08, 2021) review - #G131 - Taichi looks to upset Kazuchika Okada as block B of the G1 rolled into Kochi...","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[688,6],"tags":[1440,1306,139,643,5984,178,179,1034,224,5948,292,1239,1309,1236,1240],"class_list":["post-24997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-japan","category-reviews","tag-chase-owens","tag-el-desperado","tag-evil","tag-g1-climax","tag-g131","tag-hirooki-goto","tag-hiroshi-tanahashi","tag-jeff-cobb","tag-kazuchika-okada","tag-kosei-fujita","tag-new-japan","tag-sanada","tag-taichi","tag-tama-tonga","tag-yoshi-hashi"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p73vbt-6vb","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/njpw-g131-logo.jpg?fit=1200%2C675","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24997"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24999,"href":"http:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24997\/revisions\/24999"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nEl Desperado submitted Kosei Fujita in 8:27 (***)
\nG1 Climax 31 \u2013 Block B: YOSHI-HASHI pinned Tama Tonga in 13:15 (***)
\nG1 Climax 31 \u2013 Block B: Hirooki Goto pinned Chase Owens in 12:44 (**\u00be)
\nG1 Climax 31 \u2013 Block B: Jeff Cobb pinned SANADA in 14:17 (***\u00bd)
\nG1 Climax 31 \u2013 Block B: EVIL pinned Hiroshi Tanahashi in 17:22 (***)
\nG1 Climax 31 \u2013 Block B: Kazuchika Okada pinned Taichi in 23:10 (***\u00be)<\/p>\n
\nAfter winning with an Indian deathlock yesterday, Despy will be looking to claim another Young Lion\u2019s scalp\u2026<\/p>\n
\nA first-time singles meeting\u2026 and Tama Tonga needs a win here to keep whatever faint hopes he has of winning the block alive.<\/p>\n
\nIt\u2019s another first-time meeting, with Chase Owens looking to build on his shock win over Hiroshi Tanahashi earlier in the week\u2026 but he\u2019s also on the bubble\u2026<\/p>\n
\nBloody hell, we\u2019re 3-for-3 on first-time matches in the G1 today\u2026 and a loss for SANADA here would end his tournament.<\/p>\n
\nFinally, a G1 match with some history – we\u2019ve had five prior meetings between these two, with EVIL winning the first and last of them, including a carbon copy last year (in block B, on night 12 of the G1, on this very day fact\u2026)<\/p>\n
\nWe\u2019ve three prior meetings in these two guys\u2019 history. Taichi was Okada\u2019s opponent for his \u201cofficial New Japan debut\u201d back in 2008 – where Okada lost in nine minutes – and until last year, they\u2019d never met since. Two meetings in 2020 saw Okada get a pair of wins though, including in last year\u2019s G1.<\/p>\n
\nZack Sabre Jr (5-1 \/ 10pts)
\nKota Ibushi (5-2 \/ 10pts)
\nKENTA, Shingo Takagi (4-2 \/ 8pts)
\nTomohiro Ishii, Great-O-Khan (4-3 \/ 8pts)
\nTanga Loa, Yujiro Takahashi, Toru Yano (2-4 \/ 4pts)
\nTetsuya Naito (withdrew) (0-9 \/ 0pts)<\/p>\n
\nJeff Cobb, Kazuchika Okada (6-0 \/ 12pts)
\nEVIL (5-1 \/ 10pts)
\nHiroshi Tanahashi (eliminated) (3-3 \/ 6pts)
\nHirooki Goto (eliminated), SANADA (eliminated), Taichi (eliminated), YOSHI-HASHI (eliminated) (2-4 \/ 4pts)
\nChase Owens (eliminated), Tama Tonga (eliminated) (1-5 \/ 2pts)<\/p>\n