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G1 Climax night 9 (August 3) Preview
A Block back in action for sixth bouts
If two days, including travel, can be deemed a break, the G1 series will have had its longest for a while by the time it returns to the starting point in Osaka for one night of A Block action August 3. That’s the rigour of the most demanding tournament in all of sports, and the rigours are kicking in indeed. Tonight, the sixth matches of A Block could see the figures get to be too much for some, and elimination could become a factor, while the pressure to step up the fight for the all important top three spots mounts.
Watch ALL the action live in English on NJPW World!
If two days, including travel, can be deemed a break, the G1 series will have had its longest for a while by the time it returns to the starting point in Osaka for one night of A Block action August 3. That’s the rigour of the most demanding tournament in all of sports, and the rigours are kicking in indeed. Tonight, the sixth matches of A Block could see the figures get to be too much for some, and elimination could become a factor, while the pressure to step up the fight for the all important top three spots mounts.
Watch ALL the action live in English on NJPW World!
Main event: Shingo Takagi (2–3) vs Zack Sabre Jr. (4–1)
Singles record: 2–2
Nobody gets through the G1 unscathed, and none in the modern era get through undefeated. Zack Sabre Jr. knows that full well, and will be relatively philosophical after a stunning defeat to Shota Umino Monday. Sabre also knows how important it is to get back on the horse, especially when that horse is a Dragon and a familiar rival.
Sabre’s 2021 G1 win over Takagi would earn him a title shot at the then IWGP World Heavyweight Champion, one where Sabre fell short. After a history of challenges and defeats, Sabre has promised this is the year it comes home. Meanwhile Takagi, at 2–3, needs to put away challenging opposition if he’s to be in with a realistic chance of making it out of the block phase himself. Who gets two more points in our main event?
Nobody gets through the G1 unscathed, and none in the modern era get through undefeated. Zack Sabre Jr. knows that full well, and will be relatively philosophical after a stunning defeat to Shota Umino Monday. Sabre also knows how important it is to get back on the horse, especially when that horse is a Dragon and a familiar rival.
Sabre’s 2021 G1 win over Takagi would earn him a title shot at the then IWGP World Heavyweight Champion, one where Sabre fell short. After a history of challenges and defeats, Sabre has promised this is the year it comes home. Meanwhile Takagi, at 2–3, needs to put away challenging opposition if he’s to be in with a realistic chance of making it out of the block phase himself. Who gets two more points in our main event?
8th Match: Shota Umino (3–2) vs SANADA (2–3)
Singles record: 1–0 SANADA
As SANADA headed into the G1 this year feeling at his physical best after injury woes, he stood in stark contrast to Shota Umino. The Roughneck entered his second G1 off a hip fracture, recovered and rehabbed in barely a month, and things didn’t get any easier for Umino. Shooter’s leg, hip and back have been tested to near braking point on several points in this tournament, but against Zack Sabre Jr. Monday the biggest test was of his heart. Umino somehow gutted through immense pain to come away with his third win of the tournament, but the victory may yet prove pyrrhic.
SANADA is coming off an emotional loss against Tetsuya Naito, but one where he made the most headway against the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion in their three bouts this year with more focus and a harder edge than we’ve gotten used to. That hard edge, coupled with frustration could be a dangerous combo for Umino, as the former champion has been pushed into a corner to fight his way out of.
As SANADA headed into the G1 this year feeling at his physical best after injury woes, he stood in stark contrast to Shota Umino. The Roughneck entered his second G1 off a hip fracture, recovered and rehabbed in barely a month, and things didn’t get any easier for Umino. Shooter’s leg, hip and back have been tested to near braking point on several points in this tournament, but against Zack Sabre Jr. Monday the biggest test was of his heart. Umino somehow gutted through immense pain to come away with his third win of the tournament, but the victory may yet prove pyrrhic.
SANADA is coming off an emotional loss against Tetsuya Naito, but one where he made the most headway against the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion in their three bouts this year with more focus and a harder edge than we’ve gotten used to. That hard edge, coupled with frustration could be a dangerous combo for Umino, as the former champion has been pushed into a corner to fight his way out of.
7th Match: Tetsuya Naito (2–3) vs Gabe Kidd (3–2)
A Gabe Kidd with momentum is a dangerous man- even more so than his usual ill tempered self. Tonight Kidd comes off a win that may prove a defining one in his career over Shingo Takagi in Fukuoka, and brings his forward steam to the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion.
tetsuya Naito made the rare step recently of acknowledging the momentum that Kidd possesses, together with his antihero status that make him, in Naito’s words ‘the kind of wrestler Osaka tends to love’. Expecting this match to be a ‘rare away game for me,’ Naito is prepared to play antagonist to a cult favourite. Having looked at his best in a firey performance with SANADA in Fukuoka, Naito is coming off a win, but still with a negative record that he needs to address tonight, despite what Kidd, or the Osaka faithful have to say.
6th Match: Great-O-Khan (1–4) vs EVIL (5–0)
With the top three point scorers in each block making the playoff phase in G1 Climax 34, EVIL’s ten points on the board, ill gotten as they may be, have put him in a very strong position to advance.
Quite the opposite applies for Great-O-Khan. While there has been historical precedent for the third place G1 finisher in a ten man block scoring eight points, it has only happened once in 2019. Another loss then, effectively writes off the Dominator’s summer, but O-Khan finally got himself on the board in Fukuoka Monday with a richly deserved win over Jake Lee. Can he stop the EVIL run in Osaka to keep himself in the hunt?
5th Match: Callum Newman (2–3) vs Jake Lee (1–4)
It’s been an oft frustrating debut G1 for Jake Lee, who came in with a wave o fhype from hsi betrayal of NOAH and the Good Looking Guys stable to become part of the War Dogs. Though he has been in control of most of his five matchups, he has only come away with a circle in the win column in one of them, that being his first bout opposite SANADA.
That’s put him in a de facto must win scenario against Callum Newman tonight. Newman had his own taste of frustration Monday, when the biggest win of his career against Shingo Takagi was followed up with a interference marred loss against EVIL. Now he wants to get back in winning form in a theoretically winnable bout on paper, but one that Lee will not readily give him.
4th Match: Los Ingobernables De Japon (BUSHI & Yota Tsuji) vs HOUSE OF TORTURE (Ren Narita & Yoshinobu Kanemaru)
A preview of Yota Tsuji vs Ren Narita Sunday in Aichi will see LIJ face H.O.T in tag team action. Last year’s G1 saw Narita and Tsuji go to a time limit draw, before Tsuji vanquished Narita in the New Japan Cup quarterfinal earlier this spring. Can Narita and the HOUSE strike back?
3rd Match: Guerrillas of Destiny (Jado & El Phantasmo) vs Just Five Guys (Yuya Uemura & TAKA Michinoku)
El Phantasmo and Yuya Uemura face off ahead of their Sunday Aichi bout in our third match of the evening. If El Phantasmo is still hurting from the loss of his tag team with Hikuleo, knowing that Uemura and Taichi defeated the giant and the Headbanga in World Tag League last year isn’t going to help.
2nd Match: Toru Yano & Boltin Oleg vs BULLLET CLUB War Dogs (David Finlay & Gedo)
Sunday in Aichi, Boltin Oleg looks to pick up another win in an impressive debut G1 over the IWGP Global Champion David Finlay. Tonight’s preview sees the big man from Kazakhstan team with his NEVER Openweight 6 man Tag partner Toru Yano, presenting a difficult pair of amateur greats for Finlay and Gedo to try and overcome.
1st Match: Shoma Kato, Katsuya Murahsima, Tomoaki Honma & Hirooki Goto vs Konosuke Takeshita, Jeff Cobb, HENARE & Francesco Akira
Before Konosuke Takeshita and Hirooki Goto square off Sunday, an eight man preview. Without a factional home in NJPW, Takeshita has been put into uneasy teams with United Empire, and there’ll be added unease with Sunday opponents Jeff Cobb and HENARE on the same side tonight to boot.
