NJPW G1 Climax 28 Night 13: Review, Results, Standings, Grades

Jay White vs Yoshi-Hashi

White starts out as aggressive as he’s been all tournament. He immediately asserts his dominance with a Saito suplex over the top rope and a pummeling into the barricade and apron. Hashi comes back with some signature offense, but he’s taken too much damage to keep it up for long. White hits a variety of big moves and tries to end it early. However, Hashi fights on and Switchblade has to resort to a low blow. The third Bladerunner attempt ends it.

Yoshi-Hashi’s been showing some great babyface fire in this tournament. He got the crowd behind him here, but the right man won. Switchblade moves to 10 points, and is still firmly entrenched at the top of A block’s standings. Things are really starting to get interesting.

Rating: ***1/4

EVIL vs Hiroshi Tanahashi

The King of Darkness shows a huge amount of urgency and intensity from the start. He dominates for a while, working Tana’s injured arm and relentlessly beating him down both in and out of the ring. Eventually a twist and shout, dragon screw, and high fly flow turns the tides, but EVIL rolls out of the way of the second HFF.

They move to a great closing sequence. EVIL goes for EVERYTHING multiple times, but each attempt is reversed. The Ace hits an STO of his own, and the High Fly Flow finishes it.

This was a good match. I just wish it would’ve went on a bit longer. Given the circumstances, it didn’t feel quite dramatic enough down the stretch. At the same time though, EVIL’s at his best in short, fast-paced brawls. So I understand why the match was structured this way.

Rating: ***3/4