NJPW G1 Climax 28: Night 3 Results, Ratings, and Analysis

from: njpw1972.com

Michael Elgin def Hangman Page

Elgin asserted his dominance by overpowering Page for most of the match. Hangman showed great fire, though, and was able to hit some high risk moves and timely reversals to stay in it. His fighting spirit and resiliency got the crowd firmly behind him, which is a great sign for his potential to flourish in this G1 and beyond.

In the closing stretch of the match, Page managed to kick out of the Splash Mountain Bomb and reverse an Elgin Bomb attempt into the set up position for Rite of Passage, but one last reversal from Mike set up the Elgin Bomb for the win. Elgin moves to 2-0, while Page goes to 1-1.

This was great. Elgin continued to impress, and Hangman had the breakout performance he needed.

Rating: ***3/4

EVIL def Yoshi-Hashi

This was a solid match that told a simple, effective story. EVIL targeted Yoshi-Hashi’s injured shoulder and was the aggressor throughout, while Hashi was the plucky underdog who had to stick and move to survive. There was a spot that appeared to be a botch about 8 minutes into the match where both men took a rough tumble over the top rope to the outside. EVIL appeared to be shaken up, but he recovered and regained momentum. A half and half suplex followed by EVERYTHING IS EVIL spelled the end for Hashi. Evil gets to 1-1, and YH is still winless

Rating: ***1/4

Togi Makabe def Minoru Suzuki

This was exactly what you’d expect out of these guys- an intense, stiff, classic strong style brawl that spilled out to ringside and got ugly at times. Suzuki dominated most of the match. Makabe fought back over and over, but his opponent was relentless with chair shots and heavy combinations. The match seemed to be headed for a GSP, but Makabe caught The King by surprise and ended up hitting the spider german, followed by two King Kong knees for the huge upset victory. Makabe is undefeated, and Suzuki is 0-2. What is life?

I was a bit frustrated that Suzuki did zero selling of the leg that Tanahashi appeared to injure with the inverted dragon screw on night 1, but whatever. Suzuki is Suzuki, so I guess he doesn’t have to sell if he doesn’t want to.

Rating: ***3/4