NJPW G1 Climax 28 Night 8: Results, Review, Standings, Grades

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With NJPW G1 28’s somewhat flat Night 7, there was a ton of pressure on the stacked B Block to deliver on Night 8- a show headlined by Juice Robinson vs Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi vs SANADA…

Ren Narita & Michael Elgin vs El Desperado & Minoru Suzuki

Narita and Desperado start off the match in the ring, while their partners are brawling at ringside. Suzuki leads Elgin into the crowd and nails him with a chair. Minoru returns to the ring, tags in, and tries to kill Narita. Elgin recovers and makes the save.

He and Suzuki go back and forth for a while, but neither man can get the advantage. Ren and Despy are tagged back in. Narita shows great fight and even manages to get a couple of believable near falls, but Despy withstands and eventually hits the Pinche Loco for the win.

This was one of the best (and longest) opening tags of the tournament yet. All four guys seemed to put in a good amount of effort in order to make it stand out. Narita shined bright, and Suzuki and Elgin got me more excited for their match tomorrow. Good stuff here.

Rating: ***1/4

BUSHI & EVIL vs Chase Owens & Hangman Page

Page and Owens start off the match all over Bushi. They tag back and forth, picking apart the Junior. After taking quite a bit of damage, Bushi manages to tag in EVIL, who runs off some good offense on both of his opponents.

Page and Owens try to fight their way back into the match to no avail. Bushi isolates Hangman and Everything Is EVIL to Owens ends the match.

This was fine. Short but effective. I’m a bit sad to see Page and Owens take their first loss as a team on this tour. I thought they may go undefeated the whole way, but oh well. Still hope to see them as a more permanent team moving forward.

Rating: **1/2