NJPW G1 Climax 26 Day 10 Results (8/1): Naito Vs. Honma, Omega Vs. Evil, Elgin Vs. Nagata

NEW JAPAN PRO WRESTLING G1 CLIMAX 26

August 1st, 2016- Takamatsu Civic General Gymnasium

Airing on NJPWworld.com

The G1 Climax has reached the halfway point. Less than two weeks away from the final show on 8/14. This show features the 5th grouping of B block matches. After this event. All 20 G1 participants will have only 4 matches left each to try and put themselves in position to compete for a shot at the main event at WrestleKingdom 11 in January.

The Undercard

RYUSUKE TAGUCHI, JUICE ROBINSON & DAVID FINLAY DEFEATED JUSHIN THUNDER LIGER, TIGER MASK & CAPTAIN NEW JAPAN IN 5:46

Finally, The former CJ Parker and David Finlay get a victory at a G1 event thanks to good old Captain New Japan. Juice Robinson gets the honor of pinning The Captain. He beat him with his finish, The Pulp Fiction.

BAD LUCK FALE, TAMA TONGA & YUJIRO TAKAHASHI DEFEATED HIROYOSHI TENZAN, SATOSHI KOJIMA & MANABU NAKANISHI IN 7:03

The Bullet Club victorious when Tonga hits the Stun Gun on Nakanishi. Tenzan and Fale will face each other in the A block on Wednesday.

NAOMUCHI MARUFUJI & HIROOKI GOTO DEFEATED SANADA & BUSHI IN 5:42

Hirooki pins Bushi with the GTR. Marufuji and Goto make a nice tandem and they beat two of the members of Los Ingobernables.

HIROSHI TANAHASHI, TOGI MAKABE & KUSHIDA DEFEATED KAZUCHIKA OKADA, GEDO & TOMOHIRO ISHII IN 8:38

Entertaining 6 man match featuring the two biggest stars in Japan. One of the better undercard matches on all of these G1 events. Kushida gets the win for his team over Gedo with a moonsault. This match was also used to set up the next A block matches on 8/3 in Tanahashi vs Ishii and Okada vs Makabe. The latter will be for first place in that block.

G1 CLIMAX 26 TOURNAMENT

B BLOCK MATCHES

YOSHI-HASHI DEFEATED KATSUHIKO NAKAJIMA IN 12:02

Huge win for Yoshi-Hashi. By beating Nakajima, who is currently tied for the lead in the B block at 6 points. At this point in the tournament. Every competitor is competing all taped up and banged up. Some of the competitors like the two wily vets in Nagata and Tenzan look like they have fallen down 3 flights of stairs whenever they enter the ring for their matches. The injury aspect was largely the story of this match. Hashi has his shoulder taped up and Nakajima tried his best all match to exploit that injury. Some stiff action in this one. As Yoshi-Hashi normally does in his matches. He plays the underdog role and the crowds love him and join him on his journey. Crowd was rewarded for their faith when Hashi beat Nakajima with his Karma finisher. Nice opening match.

MICHAEL ELGIN DEFEATED YUJI NAGATA IN 10:35

Elgin defeats Nagata with his Elgin Bomb. This wasn't a pretty match. Yuji seemed 2 steps slower than normal. Their styles didn't mesh well. In a long tournament that has 181 tourney matches, You inevitably get a few of these. Michael Elgin after losing his first 2 matches in the G1, has promised not to lose again and here he is now currently tied at the leader board after beating Nagata. Both wrestlers get a day of rest and won't be back in tourney action until Thursday. Nagata probably needs the rest more.

TORU YANO DEFEATED KATSUYORI SHIBATA IN 1:05

Not a misprint or a keypad botch on my part. Yano up to his usual antics, pulls off the theft of the century by pinning Shibata in just over a minute. Yano immediately removed the turnbuckle in this match. Gave Shibata a low blow. Shibata eventually ran into the exposed turnbuckle pad and Yano gets the shocking win with a roll up. I usually refrain from critiquing the booking of these events because I like to treat each individual match as a sporting contest to an extent. Hard to see the logic in this one but as previewed here on this site before this tournament. Yano is the ultimate spoiler in the G1. He does this every year and he may have spoiled Shibata's chances of potentially winning the B block.

KENNY OMEGA DEFEATED KING OF DARKNESS EVIL IN 10:15

It took awhile for the crowd to get into this one after the aftertaste of the last match. They did come along for the ride eventually and this was a good match. Evenly contested and Kenny was in top form character wise. When he is in show off mode but not acting silly. He is a very effective performer. Omega gets the victory and 2 crucial points beating Evil with The One Winged Angel. For Evil, It's getting late early and he needed this win because he has fallen to the bottom of the B block standings. I think you can safely rule him out with only 4 matches left and just 1 win(2pts) to his credit. Evil would have to run the table and get lots of help.

TETSUYA NAITO DEFEATED TOMOAKI HONMA IN 20:38

I guess we know where all the time on this card was saved for. This was Honma's best performance in the tournament but it came at the expense of a loss. Naito gets a big win defeating Honma with The Destino after 20 minutes of action. Naito dominated the majority of it and the story of the bulk of the match was his frustration of not being able to put away Tomoaki. You sometimes find yourself rooting for Honma in these matches even though you realize that realistically. He probably won't win the G1. Yesterday on the G1 undercard, Respect was teased between these two which is surprising considering the level of disrespect that Tetsuya normally shows to his opponents. It wasn't seen as a genuine act by Tetsuya yesterday. Honma may have earned Naito's genuine respect after this match. With this victory, Naito puts himself in a now 6 way tie for the B block leaderboard with 6 points.

NJPW G1 Climax 26 Day 10 – 2016.08.01 – Part 01 by NewJapan

NJPW G1 Climax 26 Day 10 – 2016.08.01 – Part 02 by NewJapan

NJPW G1 Climax 26 Day 10 – 2016.08.01 – Part 03 by NewJapan

UPDATED G1 STANDINGS

A BLOCK

TOGI MAKABE- 4-1- (8 POINTS)

KAZUCHIKA OKADA- 4-1 (8 POINTS)

NAOMICHI MARUFUJI- 3-2 (6 POINTS)

HIROYOSHI TENZAN-2-3 (4 POINTS)

HIROOKI GOTO-2-3 (4 POINTS)

SANADA- 2-3 (4 POINTS)

TOMOHIRO ISHII- 2-3 (4 POINTS)

BAD LUCK FALE- 2-3 (4 POINTS)

TAMA TONGA- 2-3 (4 POINTS)

HIROSHI TANAHASHI- 2-3 (4 POINTS)

B BLOCK

TETUSUYA NAITO- 3-2 (6 POINTS)

KENNY OMEGA- 3-2 (6 POINTS)

MICHAEL ELGIN- 3-2 (6 POINTS)

KATSUHIKO NAKAJIMA- 3-2 (6 POINTS)

YUJI NAGATA- 3 -2 (6 POINTS)

YOSHI-HASHI- 3 -2 (6 POINTS)

TOMOAKI HONMA- 2 -3 (4 POINTS)

KATSUYORI SHIBATA- 2-3 (4 POINTS)

TORU YANO- 2-3 (4 POINTS)

EVIL- 1 -4 (2 POINTS)

Next up in the G1 Climax 26 tournament on Wednesday 8/3. After a day off, We return to the A block and these are the featured matches.

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