New Japan World Pro Wrestling on AXS
July 17, 2015

Tonight we look at three matches from the WON Best Major Show winner night seven of the G1 Climax 24 round-robin tournament including the WON Match of the Year AJ Styles vs. Minoru Suzuki.

Your hosts are Mauro Ranallo and Frank Shamrock.

• G1 Climax 24 Block B: AJ Styles [8] vs. Minoru Suzuki [6] (Night Seven – 8/1/14)
  

I feel like the show will get some flak from the IWC nerds out here since we only get highlights of this match. Suzuki’s wins over Frank Shamrock in Pancrase are mentioned. AJ hits the Best Dropkick in the Business early and we go to the floor where Styles lands a springing forearm smash off the barricade. JIP ahead to AJ hitting a jumping splash in the corner where he sells the arm, but we have no idea why. Suzuki pulls the ref to avoid a second one. Suzukigun lackey TAKA Michinoku comes in and stomps away on Styles. Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson take care of the little guy. Now the Killer Elite Squad ambush Gallows and Anderson as they brawl to the back. Big strike exchange where both men slap each other down takes us to commercial. When we come back, Suzuki is the first man up. AJ kicks down Suzuki and does the Bullet Club signal. Suzuki then decides to break that finger off. He baits AJ into the Fujiwara armbar and bends back the Bullet Club finger gun. Styles finds the ropes, but finds himself in a SLEEPERHOLD. GOTCH STYLE PILEDRIVER TIME. Well, AJ won’t fall victim to the piledriver. He blocks a hurracanrana and looks for the STYLES CLASH, but Suzuki counters to an anklelock. They go back and forth with that hold until Suzuki manages a Cross Armbreaker. AJ tries clasping his hands. Suzuki has the arm bent back in a nasty fashion for sure. Styles breaks loose though and finds a weak STYLES CLASH. Both men back up and they trade trading slaps and whatnot. Styles uses the bad arm and Suzuki straight punches him in the neck. Pele Kick! STYLES CLASH. AJ picks up another win. (10:07 shown) They cut off a little over six minutes here. Looked like a pretty epic encounter, but we missed all the stuff with the arm.

• G1 Climax 24 Block B: Hiroyoshi Tenzan [6] vs. Hirooki Goto [6] (Night Seven – 8/1/14) 1715
  

Goto wins a shoulderblock battle to start. Tenzan fires back with Mongolian chops. TTD won’t happen, but he ducks the Marufuji clothesline from Goto and headbutts the belly. Crowd LOVES Tenzan here. Goto cools him off with an Ushikoroshi. That gets two. Tenzan looks like dead weight here. Goto can’t get the SHOUTEN though and we get a mid-ring elbow smash exchange. How about some Mongolian chops instead? Goto blocks one with a headbutt, but Tenzan connects with some headbutts of his own. TTD! Cover, 1-2-NO! Tenzan applies the ANACONDA MAX and gets Goto to tap out. (5:18 shown) Six minutes and some change edited from this as well.

• G1 Climax 24 Block A: Shinsuke Nakamura [10] vs. Tomohiro Ishii [6] (Night Seven – 8/1/14)
  

CHAOS EXPLODES~! Pretty tentative start as usual for Nakamura. After he does the nose to the belly thing, Ishii declines a handshake and slaps Nakamura. The actions picks up as Ishii misses a Sliding Lariat right before ducking out of the way of a Boma Ye. Nakamura wins an elbow strike exchange and knees Ishii back into a corner, but Ishii refuses the shaky boot choke. Nakamura puts Ishii up in the corner for the running knee, but of course Ishii knows it coming and slides onto the apron. Nakamura catches Ishii with a head kick and gives him the Orton DDT through the ropes. More elbows are traded. Nakamura starts delivering knees again and puts Ishii up in the corner to blast him with a running knee for two. Ishii wisely counters what Nakamura is throwing and chops Nakamura real good in the throat. Over in the corner, Ishii hits the Stalling Superplex for two. Powerbomb gets 1-2-NO! Nakamura cuts off Ishii with choke holds and delivers the Reverse Powerslam. Nakamura psyches himself for the Boma Ye, but Ishii runs and dropkicks him. Ishii tries to win a slugfest, but Nakamura comes off the second rope with a kick. Time for the Boma Ye, but Ishii cuts him off with a Lariat. Ishii gives Nakamura a taste of his own medicine with the Reverse Powerslam. Nakamura looks for another sleeper, but Ishii flips him over. He tries to run down Nakamura with another lariat, but Nakamura grabs the arm for the flying armbar! Ishii manages to find the ropes though. Enziguri connects, but Ishii catches Nakamura another lariat with the good arm. Well, there’s one with the hurt arm for 1-2-NO! Finisher attempts fail and Ishii headbutts Nakamura down for the Sliding Lariat. Cover, 1-2-NO! ISHII DRILLER is countered again and Nakamura connects with a spinning heel kick. Backcracker to Ishii sets up a BOMA YE to the back of the head. Oh, but he’s too spent to cover Ishii. As they run at each other and meet in the middle, Ishii receives a big boot. He NO-SELLS and blasts Nakamura with another lariat. He’s still standing, but selling the strike. Another elbow exchange ends with Ishii drilling Nakamura with an enziguri only for to Nakamura to suck it up and charge at him for the BOMA YE. He kicks out at one! Another flying kick by Nakamura gets two. WHAT. He tries another Boma Ye, but Ishii blocks the knee and headbutts Nakamura back into the ropes. Ishii charges and eats a BOMA YE as Nakamura picks up two more points. (15:14) It’s interesting how they protect some finishers and not others in New Japan. Ishii kicking out at one that deep into the match after the second of three Boma Ye’s makes absolutely no sense. I liked Nakamura when he was able to cut off Ishii with different things like the chokes and the flying armbar (which looked super sweet, by the way). ***¾

Until next time, so long for now.

NEXT WEEK: We will take a look at night eight from G1 Climax 24: Okada versus Takahashi, Shibata versus Honma, and Tanahashi versus Nakamura in the main event.