By Bryan Rose, WrestlingObserver.com

Welcome to this morning’s New Japan G1 Climax 25 report. We’re back at Korakuen Hall as we see A block matches tonight. Hiroshi Tanahashi takes on Togi Makabe in the main event, and Bullet Club members collide when Hiroshi Tanahashi takes on Bad Luck Fale. Korakuen Hall shows are always hot so let’s hope tonight’s show continues the momentum that the Sunday morning show had.

Jay White & Mascara Dorada vs. Cody Hall & Yujiro Takahashi

More signs of wear and tear as Yujiro’s wearing compression tape on one of his shoulders. It sure was weird seeing Cody Hall and Mascara Dorada do spots together, but they worked fine. They had a pretty good tag team match. Dorada did a senton to the floor and Jay White showed great fire as a babyface. It boiled down to him and Yujiro, with the latter pinning him with the Miami Shine.

Kushida & Captain New Japan vs. Karl Anderson & Tama Tonga
This was ok. It was what you would expect- Kushida looked good and was over, Tonga got some shine in, Anderson was fine and Captain New Japan got pinned. What is unique here is that Anderson was the one who pinned CNJ after being distracted with the stun gun. Most of this tour so far has been Tama Tonga scoring the pinfall but I guess they changed it up here.

Hirooki Goto & Yohei Komatsu vs. Michael Elgin & David Finlay

Goto and Elgin started things off and the crowd was very much into this. Elgin, as he has been on this tour, got over huge here with his awesome power spots. He did his familiar spot where he has both guys and does a samoan drop/fallaway slam combination that also got a great reaction. White and Komatsu worked against one another here as well and looked good. Finlay took out Goto on the outside, which left Komatsu and Elgin alone together, which only means Elgin pinned him after the buckle bomb and the spinning powerbomb. Good match with great heat towards the end.

Satoshi Kojima & Yuji Nagata & Tomoaki Honma & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Shinsuke Nakamura & Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii & Yoshi-Hashi.
Funny spot at the start of the match where Okada was tagged and it looked like he and Nagata were going to go at it, but Nagata tagged in Taguchi and they did Taguchi’s pose together. The pairings for this were Nakamura/Kojima, Ishii/Honma and Nagata/Okada. Crowd, which is really hot tonight, was into this match big time. Taguchi and Honma did a double kokeshi headbutt together. It was Taguchi and Nakamura who were left and despite interference toward the end, Nakamura was able to get the win here with the boma ye. Great match, probably one of the best tags on the tour.

Tetsuya Naito vs. Doc Gallows

Despite being a total heel for most of this tour, Gallows worked as the heel here so the crowd occasionally chanted for Naito. A lot of this was Gallows in control until Naito started to mount a comeback. Gallows went for the Gallows Poll but Naito reversed it into a hurricanrana pin. Gallows was on the top rope and Naito was laying punches on him but Gallows grabbed him and hit the Gallows Poll off the top rope to pin him. Pretty alright, but there have been better matches on tonight’s show so far. 

Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Katsuyori Shibata

A lot of the match was back and forth between the two. The crowd got into it more as the match went on. Tenzan at one point had the anaconda vise but Shibata escaped. Tenzan gave him the Mongolian chops when Shibata transitioned into a sleeper Lots of headbutts from Tenzan. Tenzan got the anaconda vise on him again and this time Shibata submitted. Good match, got pretty damn great in the last few moments. Crowd went crazy when Tenzan submitted him. 

Kota Ibushi vs. Toru Yano

Yano shoved the ref into Ibushi, low blowed him and rolled him up for the win. Yep.  

A.J. Styles vs. Bad Luck Fale

Fale laid down for AJ like he was going to get an easy win, but Fale kicked out at two. AJ got in his face, saying that we had a deal. AJ pushed him while his back was turned while the whole Bullet Club talked him down. They were going for the wolfpac sign when Fale jumped him and threw him over to the outside wiping out the rest of Bullet Club. He then flung him across the barricade into a bunch of empty chairs. Fale went to use a chair but Tama Tonga took it away from him, which distracted Fale long enough for Styles to come off the stage and attack Fale. They went back to the stands where Fale teased the Bad Luck Fall but AJ escaped and they both made it back to the ring. Fale, after AJ avoided the Bad Luck Fall the first time and tried a hurricanrana, reversed it and actually teased a Styles Clash, but he countered back to the Bad Luck Fall. AJ avoided it and just put his feet on the ropes to pin him. Weird match with a weak finish, but it was an interesting story and not like other matches we’ve seen in this tournament so far.

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Togi Makabe

Crowd was immediately chanting for Makabe as soon as the bell rang. Tanahashi played heel and worked on Makabe’s leg. They had a pretty good competitive back and forth match, there have been better main events on other shows but this was good. The crowd was into this too and that helped. Tanahashi missed the high fly flow which allowed Makabe to hit the kneeling powerbomb. He tries the king kong knee drop but Tanahashi grabs the leg, gives him the slingblade, then high fly flows him while Makabe gets up and poses. Tanahashi then hit another one and pinned him.

Current Standings

Block A:

AJ Styles- 12

Tetsuya Naito- 10

Hiroshi Tanahashi- 10

Bad Luck Fale- 10

Katsuyori Shibata- 8

Kota Ibushi- 6

Togi Makabe- 6

Toru Yano- 6

Hiroyoshi Tenzan- 4

Doc Gallows- 4

Block B:

Kazuchika Okada- 12

Karl Anderson- 10

Hirooki Goto- 10

Shinsuke Nakamura- 10

Tomohiro Ishii- 8

Michael Elgin- 8

Yujiro Takahashi- 4

Satoshi Kojima- 4

Yuji Nagata- 4

Tomoaki Honma- 0