BLOCK A & BLOCK B FIRST ROUND MATCHES
The first night of the PPW World Championship G1 Climax began with the opening round matches of Block A. The first match saw Zack Sabre Jr take on KENTA, it lasted about seventeen minutes and in the end it would be the latter who got the win thanks to the GTS.
Next Chris Sabin faced off with the “Samoan War Machine” Jacob Fatu. This match had David versus Golliath written all over it as the smaller Sabin held his own against the bigger Fatu. The ending saw Sabin amazingly hoist his opponent up onto his shoulders and attempt to hit the Cradle Shock. However he buckled under the weight and crashed to the mat, which allowed Fatu to get back to his feet and drag Sabin up and hit a Samoan Drop for the pin.
Then Gunther and Moose went to war for sixteen minutes and the ending saw the former hit a Folding Powerbomb onto the latter for the pin.
After that Sanada and Chris Jeircho competed in the last match before the intermission. It lasted nineteen minutes and saw Jericho get the win after the Judas Effect.
Back from the intermission, Jake Lee faced Randy Orton with the latter getting the pin after an RKO off the top rope.
Next El Hijo Del Vikingo took on the “Rated R Superstar” Edge in a match that lasted twenty minutes. Edge caught a springboarding Vikingo with a mid-air Spear for the pin.
Then MJF and Jon Moxley faced off in the penultimate match of the night. Despite trying to run away from the match MJF would fall victim to the Paradigm Shift.
Finally Claudio Castagnoli went one on one with Spike Trivet in the main event. The closing moments saw Castagnoli hit a trifecta of European Uppercuts and then the Ricola Bomb for the pin.
