So since this is relatively the halfway point, I figured I'd recap my thoughts so far:
Dislcaimer: Due to time, I only watch the tourney matches each night; therefore, I have no clue how the undercards have looked.
While Night One was a really good show, the tourney seemed to hit a bit of a holding pattern after. Nights 2-5 featured some solid action sprinkled in and a couple of very good matches, but no shows on the level that you expect this tourney to produce. That has changed in a bit of a big way the more recent nights though, as the B Block has perfectly nailed down their last two shows, with Night 6 rivaling the opening night as the tourney's top show to that point, only to have Night 8(today) easily surpass both.
This morning's(for us in the western hemisphere crowd) show was nothing short of outstanding and one of the best wrestling shows this year. Yano/Honma was harmless, and then YOSHI-HASHI/EVIL and Nagata/Nakajima were both great. The double main event capped it with arguably the two best matches so far in the tourney(I wasn't as high on Night One's double main event as some others). I loved Shibata/Naito and Elgin and Omega had, in my opinion, the only serious match of the year contender so far on the entire tour.
As I expected the B Block has shined, and really found their footing to another degree in their last couple chances. Almost everyone in the Block has more than brought it consistently, with YOSHI-HASHI being the huge surprise breakout guy this year, with Yano hitting the right notes thankfully thus far, doing more to add flavor than really taking anything away from the cards, and with Elgin continuing to show that he is uniquely built for the G1. I'm in love with Block B.
Block A, well it has sadly also lived up to my dubious expectations. Ishii, Marufuji, to a degree SANADA (and with a lot of heart, Tenzan, as the appreciative crowds are lighting the path), are the only guys in the block who have been showing up to do their part in having great matches each night. Tonga has been a massive disappointment and the tourney's biggest downside so far, while guys like Okada, Goto, and Makabe(who's been booked oddly strong) have all been irritatingly coasting through the early portion of the tour.
I don't have a lot of hope that Block A is going to get their act together, but I have faith in the B Block to keep hitting homerun shows despite starting to look like a mash unit from the shared beatings they have delivered each other.
One more thing... Marufuji's chops have been the absolute best thing about the A Block thus far, he is shredding chests to pieces and its brutal and beautiful. I still don't know how he gets the sound that he gets on almost every single chop. Kudos to the bloody chested warriors eating that punishment.
