NJPW G1 Climax 26 Day 2 Results (7/22): Naito Vs. Nagata, Shibata Vs. Honma, Omega Vs. Hashi

NEW JAPAN PRO WRESTLING G1 CLIMAX 26

KORAKUEN HALL TOKYO, JAPAN

AIRING ON NJPWWORLD.COM

Credit to njpw for airing this particular night's show for free. Although, I am a subscriber. Those who woke up early enough and knew about this, got a nice treat from New Japan Pro Wrestling.

This is the second G1 event of 19 overall events leading into the tournament final on August 14th. Added to that G1 Climax Final show will be a ROH world title defense by Jay Lethal against Satoshi Kojima.

Night Two of the G1 features the opening matches in the B block segment of the G1. 5 matches in total. The event also features 4 undercard matches with competitors from the A block involved which kicked off the G1 on Monday.

THE UNDERCARD

HIROYOSHI TENZAN, SATOSHI KOJIMA AND MANABU NAKANISHI DEFEATED CAPTAIN NEW JAPAN, JUICE ROBINSON AND DAVID FINLAY

Typical 6 man tag with a mix of comedy spots with Captain involved. Match was used to build more momentum for Tenzan, who is a sleeper favorite in the G1. The finish saw tag partners, Tenzan and Kojima do their usual tandem finish of the Ten-Koji cutter on Captain for the victory.

NAOMICHI MARUFUJI, TOMOHIRO ISHII AND HIROOKI GOTO DEFEATED YUJIRO TAKAHASHI, TAMA TONGA AND BAD LUCK FALE

Short match. Decent action on both sides with Marufuji shining brightest. Coming off of his big A block opening night win vs NJPW champ, Okada. The finish in this match saw Marufuji pinning Takahashi with the sliced bread.

HIROSHI TANAHASHI, KUSHIDA AND RYUSUKE TAGUCHI DEFEATED TIGER MASK, JUSHIN LIGER AND TOGI MAKABE

Fun match that featured everyone involved and managed to limit Tanahahashi's involvement, who is still nursing an injury. Kushida and Tiger Mask were involved in the ending. Kushida gets the victory for his team with a bridge on Tiger Mask.

SANADA AND BUSHI DEFEATED KAZUCHIKA OKADA AND GEDO

Another strong showing for SANADA, who is coming off his big A block victory vs Tanahashi. This match had great heat from the crowd. The finish saw all 4 wrestlers involved. SANADA had Okada in the skull end while Bushi hit a codebreaker on GEDO for the pinfall victory.

G1 TOURNAMENT B BLOCK

KATSUHIKO NAKAJIMA DEFEATED TORU YANO BY PINFALL

This was the least competitive of the G1 matches thus far. Toru Yano did his standard comedy spots. Nakajima dominated this match and made short work of Yano defeating him with a brainbuster. Nakajima scores 2 points with this win.

YOSHI-HASHI DEFEATS KENNY OMEGA BY PINFALL

Kenny Omega cut a heel promo before this match. He stated that he hated the G1 tournament and the schedule. This was an excellent match. Back and forth with a lot of momentum shifts. Yoshi Hashi is a big crowd favorite in Japan and they were fully behind him in this one. Great action inside and outside the ring in this one. Very good spot by Omega on the outside where he pulled the floor mats on top of Yoshi and double foot stomped him. This match built up to a hectic finish of several near falls. The climax saw Hashi hit a boma ye and what appeared to be a pump handle arrow for the pin. Both men sold injuries post match and were attended to with ice packs. Yoshi-Hashi picks up the 2 points.

EVIL DEFEATS MICHAEL ELGIN

Stark contrast from the previous match. This was a hard hitting match. That might be understating it. Both Elgin and EVIL didn't hold back with any of their stiff offensive maneuvers. After several minutes of hard hitting. The finish saw some high impact moves where Elgin actually connected on a high fly flow. EVIL got the win when he hit a dragon suplex on Elgin followed by an STO. This has to be considered a mild upset and it sets up a future IWGP Intercontinental title match between these two. 2 points for EVIL in the B Block.

YUJI NAGATA DEFEATS TETSUYA NAITO BY PINFALL

Another upset in this tourney and you could argue that this may be the biggest. Just like Tenzan is the sentimental veteran favorite in the A block. The 48 year old Nagata is playing that role in the B block. Slow, methodically paced match here. Not surprising considering Nagata's style and age. The psychology of this match was Naito's lack of respect for Nagata which ended up biting him in the end. By the matches end, a fed up Nagata went crazy on Naito hitting him with multiple suplexes and throws. The finish saw Nagata hit Naito with a spin kick and a dangerous looking backdrop where Naito landed on his neck and was pinned by Yuji. The wily Japanese veteran picks up 2 points .

TOMOAKI HONMA DEFEATS KATSUYORI SHIBATA BY PINFALL

The upset theme continues. These two have been involved in a heated feud for the NEVER title. The story of the match was Honma being out for revenge against Shibata who disrespected him after he lost last month. Honma who plays the lovable loser to perfection in NJPW, came out with more passion and drive than usual. Shibata controlled the middle portion of this match utilizing his MMA skill set with several submission holds. Honma who has a history of attempting his big moves and always missing them. He actually finally picked his spots in the match correctly and got rewarded for his risks this time around. Honma won this match with his signature flying headbutt from the top rope.

Post match saw Honma give Shibata a receipt for what was done to him last month where Shibata beat him and grabbed him and threw Honma from the ring. Receipt taken forcefully here where Honma does the same thing Shibata did to him. Honma grabs the mic and thanks the crowd and makes them stand up and say "it's only over when you give up". Honma also does his "If Kokeshi is happy, we'll all be happy" catchphrase. He thanks the happy crowd and the show ends.

NJPW G1 Climax 26 Day 2 – 2016.07.22 – Part 01 by NewJapan

NJPW G1 Climax 26 Day 2 – 2016.07.22 – Part 02 by NewJapan

NJPW G1 Climax 26 Day 2 – 2016.07.22 – Part 03 by NewJapan

UPDATED G1 STANDINGS

G1 STANDINGS

A BLOCK

NAOMICHI MARUFUJI- 1-0 (2 Points)

SEIYA SANADA- 1-0 (2 Points)

HIROYOSHI TENZAN- 1-0 (2 Points)

TOGI MAKABE-1-0 (2 Points)

HIROOKI GOTO- 1-0 (2 Points)

TOMOHIRO ISHII- 0-1 (0 Points)

TAMA TONGA- 0-1 (0 Points)

BAD LUCK FALE- 0-1 (0 Points)

HIROSHI TANAHASHI- 0-1 (0 Points)

KAZUCHIKA OKADA-0-1 (0 Points)

B BLOCK

YUJI NAGATA- 1 -0 (2 POINTS)

TOMOAKI HONMA- 1 -0 (2 POINTS)

YOSHI-HASHI- 1 -0 (2 POINTS)

EVIL- 1 -0 (2 POINTS)

KATSUHIKO NAKAJIMA- 1-0 (2 POINTS)

KENNY OMEGA- 0-1 (0 POINTS)

TETUSUYA NAITO- 0-1 (0 POINTS)

MICHAEL ELGIN- 0-1 (0 POINTS)

TORU YANO- 0-1 (0 POINTS)

KATSUYORI SHIBATA- 0-1 (0 POINTS)

The next G1 event takes place on saturday 7/23. These are the scheduled G1 A Block matches.

A BLOCK : Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Tama Tonga
A BLOCK : Naomichi Marufuji vs. Bad Luck Fale
A BLOCK : Tomohiro Ishii vs. Hirooki Goto
A BLOCK : Kazuchika Okada vs. SANADA
A BLOCK : Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Togi Makabe