NJPW G1 Climax Results – Day 3: Tanahashi vs Jay White, Okada vs Bad Luck Fale, Elgin, Hangman & More

NJPW G1 Climax Results – Day 3
July 16, 2018
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Report by Mike Killam for ProWrestling.com

Undercard

— Guerrillas of Destiny def. Toa Henare & Shota Umino

— Toru Yano & Jado def. Zack Sabre Jr. & Taka Michinoku

— Juice Robinson & David Finlay def. Kota Ibushi & Yujiro Takahashi

— Tetsuya Naito & Sanada def. Tomohiro Ishii & SHO

— Hirooki Goto & YOH def. Kenny Omega & Chasse Owens

A Block Matches

— MICHAEL ELGIN (2) def. HANGMAN PAGE (2)

An excellent back and forth match to get block action started. The crowd was pro-Elgin at the start but both guys worked extremely hard and Hangman got a ton of chants and support by the end. Probably the best singles match I’ve seen from him, ever. They were neck and neck throughout with Hangman fighting from underneath and refusing to say die, despite giving up a ton of weight, power and experience to his opponent. They did this great tease on the top rope where Elgin wanted a superplex all the way to the floor and Page was just trying to stay alive, but in the end Big Mike just tossed him to the mat. There was a great suplex exchange with Page doing some impressive bridges, and Elgin doing some equally impressive deadlifts. The big man even had to bust out a variation of Will Ospreay’s new Stormbreaker finisher at one point, because none of his usual offense was getting the job done. In the end Hangman kept trying but couldn’t get him set up for Right of Passage, and Elgin hit an Avalanche Powerbomb into a spinning Elgin Bomb to score the win and two more points.

— EVIL (0) def. YOSHI-HASHI (0)

This was good, but not great. Both guys worked really hard, and it was almost at a tipping point that could have sent it to the next level, but for whatever reason it just didn’t come together for me. EVIL dominated a lot of the early going keeping things slow, working holds and putting pressure on Yoshi-Hashi’s bandaged shoulder and neck. There was a scary spot in the middle where YH went for a powerbomb but they were too close to the ropes, lost balance and went toppling to the floor. Both guys landed awkwardly, and EVIL looked a bit dazed going into the finish. Things picked up at the end as they did about a million counters between YH looking for the Butterfly Lock and EVIL looking for the STO. They did the old “slap each other in the face until we can barely stand” spot, but in the end the LIJ star finally connected with the STO to get the win.

— TOGI MAKABE (2) def. MINORU SUZUKI (0)

In a lot of the ways this resembled the Tanahashi match on night one, where Suzuki dominated 95% of the match and still somehow lost. But this time instead of employing hundreds of submissions he just punched Makabe in the face, over and over again until he was nearly unconscious. They fought to the outside, Suzuki threw him into the barricades over and over, beat him with actual pieces of the barricade, and took out a few rows of chairs for good measure. There were a few times the referee teased that he might stop the match, but Makabe kept finding enough life to stay alive. Suzuki eventually put him in a choke hold but couldn’t hit the Gotch Piledriver. Makabe came back and hit the Spider Suplex from the corner, hit a flying knee strike followed by the King Kong knee drop to score another victory.

— BAD LUCK FALE (0) def. KAZUCHIKA OKADA (0)

It’s the annual Okada-Fale match! Tanga Loa jumped the Rainmaker from behind at the start of the match, while the ref was busy trying to get Bad Luck Fale not to use a steel chair. The Underboss spent the first five minutes bullying Okada around the ring, but the former champion refused to stay down and has seemingly found a new, more aggressive attitude. He eventually came back and slammed the big man, which is not as hard as it used to be since Fale has lost about 50 pounds, before launching himslef over the ropes to take out both Bullet Club members. Okada got his first dropkick of the match and connected with a top rope elbow drop, but the Underboss easily kicked out and hit a running splash to turn the tides again. He teased a top rope splash which ended up in both guys jockeying for position, Okada hitting a second dropkick and somehow finding the strength to THROW his super heavyweight opponent to the floor. After signalling for it, he hit two back-to-back Rainmakers, but got distracted knocking Tanga Loa off the apron. A dropkick accidentally took out the referee and Tama Tonga appeared out of nowhere, dropping the former champion with a Gun Stun! Fale picked him up, hit the Bad Luck Fall, and scored the upset.

— JAY WHITE (2) def. HIROSHI TANAHASHI (2) 

Tanahashi got some good offense in at the start, until White chop blocked the knee Minoru Suzuki tortured on night one. From there it was a similar story, with the Switchblade brutally working over his opponent for the bulk of the match, slamming him into the barricades by commentary over and over again. They’re really playing up how much the commentary teams hate him, and the complete lack of respect the young CHAOS star has for anyone but himself. Eventually Tanahashi fought back with a few Dragon Screws, so both guys had bum knees, but he could never really get more than a few moves strung together before White was back on top of him, targeting the injury and building up the heat on himself. They worked towards the same comeback spot that the Ace did in his match with Suzuki, but instead of going to the finish they went to the next gear, as White grabbed a steal chair and the referee had to stop them both from killing each other with chairs. The distraction was enough for Jay to hit a low blow but in the chaos the referee went down, and Tanahashi hit a low blow of his own. He went for the High Fly Flow but White rolled through looking for the Blade Runner; the Ace countered into a straight-jacket suplex for the closest nearfall ever, which got the crowd worked up into an absolute frenzy. He went for the High Fly Flow again, but this time the champion actually threw the referee into the ropes to block the move for a second time. White smashed a chair into his opponent’s face, just like with Okada on night one, hit the Blade Runner and scored another huge victory for the IWGP U.S. Heavyweight Champion.

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