[Results] New Japan, 8/7/09

The tournament of the strongest, the G1 Climax, began its 2009 installment earlier today with an entertaining show in Hiroshima before a healthy crowd of 3,000 fans. The show began with a non-tournament match as an injury to Tomoaki Honma forced a card change and Makabe battled former GBH cohort Karl Anderson, pinning him but hurting his knee in the process, some worrying signs before the Unchained Gorilla even begins his G1 campaign. Then the tournament itself started with a battle between former WWE stars Giant Bernard and TAJIRI, a unique match with a huge size difference, meaning TAJIRI had to use some psychological warfare and did with effect en route to a shocking victory from his deadly Buzzsaw kick after a mist attack. Takashi Iizuka's first G1 since 2000 began against Manabu Nakanishi and saw the CHAOS heel shine in his role on the big stage but he was unable to defeat the previous IWGP Heavyweight Champion, losing by DQ.
ZERO1 World Heavyweight Champion, Masato Tanaka, was accompanied to the ring by former Complete Players comrades Jado & Gedo for his match with Toru Yano and would receive their help a little in his match against Toru Yano, an entertaining brawl that Tanaka was able to win with his Sliding D. After failing to win the IWGP Heavyweight Title last month from Tanahashi, NOAH's Takashi Sugiura began his third attempt at success in New Japan (the first, some newer fans may ask? The 2003 Best of the Super Jr. tournament) but started slowly with a loss to Hiroyoshi Tenzan, who is in his first major singles event since returning from injury and is looking to make up for a poor G1 last year. The match went back and forth but Tenzan had a size and experience edge and forced Sugiura to tap out to the Anaconda Vice. With other third generation men, Nagata and Nakanishi, whose age (39) he is actually closer to than younger wrestlers Nakamura and Goto, in the same block, Sugiura still has plenty of chances to score big wins.
Former RISE leader Shinsuke Nakamura finally collided with the man he left behind when former CHAOS, Hirooki Goto, in a hot semi final. Little has been said about their split, which saw Nakamura suddenly collect most of GBH to form CHAOS in an attempt to end Makabe’s career but sparks flew between them today. Despite having been Nakamura’s second-in-command in RISE, Goto held two successive wins over his generation rival going into this match so Shinsuke had much to make up for. And he did, winning one of the better matches of the show with a brutal knee kick. Takao Omori struck gold on day one of his first ever G1 by pinning the IWGP Heavyweight Champion, Hiroshi Tanahashi! In what was described as one of Omori’s best matches for a long time, he fought very well with Tanahashi but towards the end seemed destined to lose as Tana piled on the offense. Somehow, to the surprise of most, Omori landed an Axe Bomber, then his Axe Guillotine Driver, then another Axe Bomber for the win! Despite his loss, Tanahashi was the one who sent the fans home with a microphone performance his his attempt at a rare IWGP+G1 achievement got off to a false start.