[Results] New Japan, 8/8/09

Hiroshi Tanahashi was back to his best on day two of the G1 Climax, the IWGP Heavyweight Champion beating long-time rival Giant Bernard in today's main event of the first of two Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium shows. In the same building where he recently won back the IWGP belt from Nakanishi, Tanahashi pinned Bernard but had to rely on a cradle to down the big man, who himself has started the G1 poorly with two losses. Shinsuke Nakamura, on the other hand, is off to a flying start, following up on his victory over last year's G1 winner Goto yesterday with one over Pro Wrestling NOAH assassin Takashi Sugiura. These two collided in January in the big NJ vs. NOAH tag match but despite submitting Sugiura in said tag was embarrassed at how much effort it took him to defeat a "lesser" opponent. Nakamura won another intense match today to prove the difference like he wanted, pinning Sugiura following a knee kick. Sugiura, now with losses to Tanahashi (IWGP match), Tenzan, and Nakamura in succession during his New Japan invasion, next has back to back matches against third generation stars Nagata and Nakanishi, and big wins over those two would revive a bad tournament so far for him.
Hiroyoshi Tenzan is also off to a good start and today went 2-0 with a DQ win over his hated rival Iizuka, who he recently knocked out in a Chain Death Match. Today, he wasn't able to win so decisively as Iizuka lost only by DQ, just like yesterday against Nakanishi. Another rivalry of late has been Yuji Nagata vs. Hirooki Goto, with Nagata defeating Goto at the February Sumo Hall show, then Goto earning revenge in the New Japan Cup semis. Today, Nagata was victorious again and last year's winner is yet another who hasn't started so well. Takao Omori HAS started extremely well, yesterday's huge win over Tanahashi today followed up by a victory over Makabe, who was starting his campaign. The popular Omori struck Makabe with an Axe Bomber to surprisingly take an early lead in Block A. In a psychological battle of wits, Toru Yano got the best of TAJIRI, winning a heel battle by DQ to earn his first points of the tournament.