G1 Climax 34 Night 17 (August 15) Full card, preview
Round one of the playoffs in Chiba
The long quest to find the Strongest of the Summer culminates this weekend in Ryogoku Sumo Hall. The league phase of G1 Climax 34 has now ended, and August 15 will see the playoffs begin, as the second and third point scorers in each block will face off for a spot in Semifinal Saturday.
Watch all the action live in English on NJPW World!
Main event: B Block Playoff round 1- Yota Tsuji vs Konosuke Takeshita
Singles record: 1–0 Takeshita
Winner faces David Finlay in semifinals
After wins over Jeff Cobb and Ren Narita respectively last night in Hamamatsu, Yota Tsuji and Konosuke Takeshita face off in the main event. It’s a full circle end to B Block for both men, who met in the first night in Takeshita’s home town Osaka in a winning effort for AEW/DDT’s Alpha. Now, one of the two will see their G1 campaign come to a crushing end, but it’s Tsuji with the spiritual hometown advantage as he returns to a place he used to live as a young adult, and where he became determined to become a professional wrestler.
Takeshita’s quest through this G1 has been to show his strength and to acquire more of it. For Tsuji, it has been to do what nobody has before, and win the New Japan Cup and G1 in the same calendar year. There’s no doubt that Takeshita has achieved his goal, but he wants to take things a step further and become the first man since Satoshi Kojima in 2010 to win the G1 from outside of NJPW. For Tsuji, his own goals are within reach, but is it a case of so near, so far?
7th Match: A Block Playoff round 1- Shingo Takagi vs Great-O-Khan
Singles record: 4–0 Takagi
Winner faces Zack Sabre Jr. in semifinals
In much the same way as United Empire stablemate and captain TJP turned his Best of the Super Jr. campaign around, Great-O-Khan seemed down and out after four matches into the G1, but recovered to five and four, with a final emphatic victory over Tetsuya Naito on Monday. That win over the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion ended O-Khan’s fourth league campaign with a positive W:L record for the first time in his career, and has the Dominator with momentum at his side. Yet league defeats to Zack Sabre Jr. and Shingo Takagi, the two other men to advance to the playoffs, have to be haunting him.
O-Khan has never beaten Zack or Shingo, but will have to put together two first time results to make it to the finals Sunday. For Takagi, a familiar opponent will add to the confidence gained from vanquishing EVIL spirits in Yokohama and slaying the giant Jake Lee in Nagaoka. Will the summer of Shingo continue to Ryogoku?
6th Match: TMDK (Zack Sabre Jr. & Hartley Jackson) vs BULLET CLUB War Dogs (David Finlay & Gedo)
While the semi and main events will see the second and third place finishers in each block compete in singles action, Zack Sabre Jr. and David Finlay, already secured spots in the semifinals Saturday, do not get a day off. Instead they have to wrestle tonight in what could well be a preview tag for Sunday’s grand final. That means that Finlay and Gedo will be fighting for the upper hand tonight, and that ZSJ will need some help. With Kosei Fujita on the shelf with a shoulder injury, Sabre might have been in a bind but for the fact that TMDK’s rolodex runs deep.
Veteran Australian wrestler and trainer, and long time member/ally of TMDK’s, Hartley Jackson will be taking time from his schedule as a freelancer to come in clutch for his first NJPW match in a huge 18 years and only his second all time. Will he be the difference maker tonight?
5th Match: Jado, El Phantasmo & Shota Umino vs HOUSE OF TORTURE (EVIL, Ren Narita & Dick Togo)
El Phantasmo’s emotional journey through G1 Climax 34 seemed to be set to finish on a high in Hamamatsu yesterday. Determined to take down David Finlay, Phantasmo wanted to right the wrongs and correct the bad hands that he’d been dealt in his career over the past two years thanks to the Rebel’s actions and his ousting from BULLET CLUB. In the process, ELP would have earned himself a shot at Finlay’s IWGP Global Championship if he’s have won, but the result told a different story. Just as Phantasmo had the match sewn up, Gedo pulled the referee from the ring, but made it look for all the world to Phantasmo like Jado had done it. Now doubting his GoD mentor, and the only friend he has left, Phantasmo is reeling as he, Shota Umino and Jado face a team of emotional vultured in HOUSE OF TORTURE. Will this dark cult of H.O.T further lead Phantasmo to dismay, or can Shota Umino help pull ELP back together?
4th Match: Los Ingobernables De Japon (BUSHI & Tetsuya Naito) vs United Empire (Callum Newman & HENARE)
With an LIJ vs United Empire flavour to the semi main event tonight, this tag team battle will help set the stage. Callum Newman and HENARE both have had a lot of highs to their respective G1s, and HENARE finished strong last night with a win over Hirooki Goto. The NEVER Openweight Champion now tangles with the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion who now has to reset from what Tetsuya Naito himself described as a 5–4 scoreline to be ‘disappointed by but not ashamed of’; El Ingobernable now has to refocus on whoever emerges from the G1 Climax 34 final Sunday with the trophy.
3rd Match: United Empire (Francesco Akira & Jeff Cobb) vs BULLET CLUB War Dogs (Gabe Kidd & Jake Lee)
One of many interesting developments to come through G1 Climax undercards during this tour has been the development of the team many have called the ‘Mad Bastards’: that of Jake Lee and Gabe Kidd. Ever since their singles clash in Korakuen turned into a wild brawl throughout the building, Lee has earned Kidd’s respect, and the two have gone as far as to float the idea of an IWGP Tag Team Championship challenge. They’ll look to cement that idea tonight in Makuhari against a former IWGP Tag Champion in Jeff Cobb, and former IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Champion in Francesco Akira.
2nd Match: Boltin Oleg, Toru Yano & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs HOUSE OF TORTURE (Yoshinobu Kanemaru, SHO & Yujiro Takahashi)
The NEVER Openweight 6 Man Tag Team Champions reunite in Makuhari after a highly impressive debut G1 run for Boltin Oleg. This is a non title affair against HOUSE OF TORTURE, but after President Tanahashi interjected himself in the aid of Shota Umino earlier this week, interrupting an H.O.T mugging that would have seen EVIL to the playoffs? The House is sure to want repercussions, and the Ace will want to enact justice.
1st Match: Katsuya Murashima, Tomoaki Honma, YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto vs Just Five Guys (TAKA Michinoku, DOUKI, Taichi & SANADA)
Yuya Uemura’s injury has brought five guys down to four for our opening contest, but fans will be happy to see Tomoaki Honma in the opposite corner, and even happier to see returning faces. YOSHI-HASHI, Taichi and the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion DOUKI are all back in action to kick off a key night.