NJPW G1 Climax 26 Day 7 Results (7/28): Tanahashi Vs. Fale, Okada Vs. Tonga, Tenzan Vs. Makabe

NEW JAPAN PRO WRESTLING G1 CLIMAX 26

7/28-2016- Tokorozawa Civic Gymnasium, Saitama

Airing On NJPWWORLD.COM

This is the 7th of 19 overall G1 events. Today's lineup features the 4th slate of A block matches in the G1 tournament.

THE UNDERCARD

TIGER MASK IV & JUSHIN THUNDER LIGER DEFEATED DAVID FINLAY & RYUSUKE TAGUCHI

Fun opening tag team match. Match won by two familiar wrestling names. The masked duo gets the win when Tiger Mask hit a double arm superplex on Finlay for the pinfall.

YUJI NAGATA, SATOSHI KOJIMA,TOMOAKI HONMA & MANABU NAKANISHI DEFEATED KATSUHIKO NAKAJIMA, YASHI-HASHI, GEDO & TORU YANO

Kojima who gave up his G1 spot to his partner Nagata, He has shined in these undercard matches. He has been rewarded with a Ring of Honor title match vs Jay Lethal on the final night of the tournament. Kojima gets the win here for his team with a lariat on Gedo. This 8 man tag was used primarily to set up upcoming tournament matches. Yuji Nagata and Nakajima lost focus on the match itself and were most focused on each other. They had a big brawl at the end of this one and had to be pulled apart.

KENNY OMEGA & YUJIRO TAKAHASHI DEFEATED MICHAEL ELGIN & CAPTAIN NEW JAPAN

This was essentially a handicap match with Michael Elgin trying to beat The Bullet Club by himself. The running gag in these undercard multi man matches on the G1 is Captain's partners avoiding tagging him because he is such a huge liability. In a standard tag match, He's a little harder to hide. The finish of this match saw Omega keeping Elgin out of the ring so he can't save The Captain from being beaten and pinned by Takahashi. Elgin and Omega face off in the G1 on sunday.

TETSUYA NAITO, KING OF DARKNESS & BUSHI DEFEATED KATSUYORI SHIBATA, KUSHIDA & JUICE ROBINSON

The Los Ingobernables faction gets the win when Evil pinned Juice with The STO. The story of this match is the build between Naito and Shibata at the 7/30 G1 event, which is shaping up to be the best G1 event on paper thus far.

G1 CLIMAX 26 TOURNAMENT

B BLOCK MATCHES

TOGI MAKABE DEFEATED HIROYOSHI TENZAN

Makabe continues his strong run in this tourney by improving to 4 and 0 with a big victory over the sentimental favorite, Tenzan. It's getting closer to the point now where opposing participants have to root for Togi Makabe to lose if they want to catch up to him points wise. Makabe won this match with his king kong knee drop. After a great start by Tenzan in the G1, He is starting to fade and could find himself out of the mix if he doesn't turn things around soon.

SANADA DEFEATED HIROOKI GOTO

After opening the G1 with a huge win against Tanahashi. SANADA had lost two straight and needed to bounce back and he did so here. This win puts Sanada back in the mix. Match started off slow but picked up steam towards the end. It was basically a back and forth battle of submission attempts and counters. Sanada finally wins the match in 12 minutes with a rounding body press.

TOMOHIRO ISHII DEFEATED NAOMUCHI MARUFUJI

Nothing fancy in this match up. Just a straight up hard hitting battle between these two. Ishii gets the victory and 2 more points with a brainbuster in this smash mouth styled match.

KAZUCHIKA OKADA DEFEATED TAMA TONGA

These final two matches tonight feature upstart Bullet Club members against the two major New Japan stars in Okada and Tanahashi. Tonga is coming off a huge upset against Tanahashi but he was out classed here against arguably the best wrestler on the planet in Okada. Fairly competitive match ends when Okada beats Tonga with the Rainmaker in 11 minutes.

HIROSHI TANAHASHI DEFEATED BAD LUCK FALE

Tanahasi gets out of his slump here but just barely after mostly taking a beating from Fale in this match. Tanahashi has now reached the point where instead of playing the favorite. The three opening losses have established him as the underdog hero. That was the theme of this match. Him battling, scratching and clawing to find a way to win and that's what he did here by pinning Fale with a backslide. Not a statement win that he's back but more of a case of him pulling out a victory and living to fight another day. Post match saw Tanahashi celebrate with his happy fans doing his whole air guitar routine.

NJPW G1 Climax 26 Day 7 – 2016.07.28 – Part 01 by NewJapan

NJPW G1 Climax 26 Day 7 – 2016.07.28 – Part 02 by NewJapan

NJPW G1 Climax 26 Day 7 – 2016.07.28 – Part 03 by NewJapan

NJPW G1 Climax 26 Day 7 – 2016.07.28 – Part 04 by NewJapan

UPDATED G1 STANDINGS

A BLOCK

TOGI MAKABE- 4-0- (8 POINTS)

KAZUCHIKA OKADA- 3-1 (6 POINTS)

HIROYOSHI TENZAN-2-2 (4 POINTS)

HIROOKI GOTO-2-2 (4 POINTS)

NAOMICHI MARUFUJI- 2-2 (4 POINTS)

SANADA- 2-2 (4 POINTS)

TOMOHIRO ISHII- 2-2 (4 POINTS)

BAD LUCK FALE- 1-3 (2 POINTS)

TAMA TONGA- 1-3 (2 POINTS)

HIROSHI TANAHASHI- 1-3 (2 POINTS)

B BLOCK

YUJI NAGATA- 3 -0 (6 POINTS)

TOMOAKI HONMA- 2 -1 (4 POINTS)

KATSUHIKO NAKAJIMA- 2-1 (4 POINTS)

TETUSUYA NAITO- 2-1 (4 POINTS)

KENNY OMEGA- 2-1 (4 POINTS)

YOSHI-HASHI- 1 -2 (2 POINTS)

EVIL- 1 -2 (2 POINTS)

KATSUYORI SHIBATA- 1-2 (2 POINTS)

MICHAEL ELGIN- 1-2 (2 POINTS)

TORU YANO- 0-3 (0 POINTS)

The next G1 event takes place in two days and it will feature the 4th slate of these B block matches.

B BLOCK : Tomaoki Honma vs. Toru Yano
B BLOCK : YOSHI-HASHI vs. EVIL
B BLOCK : Yuji Nagata vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima
B BLOCK : Michael Elgin vs. Kenny Omega
B BLOCK : Katsuyori Shibata vs. Tetsuya Naito